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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 


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PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION, 1867. 
REPORTS OF THE UNITED STATES COMMISSIONERS. 


REPORT OX MINING 


AND THE 


MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES, 


n\ 






HENRY Ft Q. D’ALI GN Y, 

UNITED STATES COMMISSIONER, 


AND 


ALFRED HGET, F. 


GEYLER, AND C. LEPAINTELE, 


CIVIL AND MINING ENGINEERS, 


PARIS, FRANCE. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1870 . 








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P HE FACE. 


The matter of this report was submitted to the Department of State 
by the Commission, in three distinct portions, with the following titles: 

First. “Report on the Exploitation of Mines, by Alfred Huet, Civil 
Engineer, Paris, France, and Henry F. Q. D’Aligny, United States Com¬ 
missioner.” 

Second. “Report on Boring Machines, by Alfred Geyler, Civil Engi¬ 
neer, Paris, France, and Henry F. Q. D’Aligny, United States Commis¬ 
sioner.” 

Third. “ Report on the Mechanical Preparation of Minerals, by C. 
Lepainteur, Engineer to the Syndicat of Class 47, Paris, France, and 
Henry F. Q. D’Aligny, United States Commissioner.” 

These reports were originally prepared in the French language, and 
having been imperfectly translated, the translation required revision. 
This has been done by the Editor, and considerable additions and changes 
have been made. In general, however, the original arrangement and 
presentation of the various subjects treated of lias been followed as 
closely as possible, and in some portions with perhaps not as many 
changes in the diction of the first translation as a due regard to style 
would require. 

As the three reports were upon different branches of the art of mining, 
the three have been combined, under one general title, into one report 
in three parts, corresponding to the three reports originally submitted. 
Their distinct character is thus, to a certain extent, preserved. 

WILLIAM P. BLAKE, 

Editor of the Reports of the United States Commissioners. 















































































































































CONTENTS. 


BORING, DRILLING, AND EXCAVATING. 

CHAPTER I. 

BOEING SHAFTS OF LARGE SECTION, AND ARTESIAN-WELL BORING. 

Introduction—Boring large mining shafts in the department of Moselle—Surface prepa¬ 
rations—Tools and methods of boring—Tubbing—Concreting—Tools used at the 
second shaft—Lining the shafts—Operation of lowering the sections of tubbing—The 
moss-box—General observations on boring apparatus—Kind’s new trepan—Sinking 
and baring artesian wells—Boring tools of D ego usee and Laurent—Trepan with free 
fall—Trepan of Dm Brothers.—pp. 7-31. 


CHAPTER II. 


DRILLING ENGINES AND COAL-CUTTING MACHINES. 


Machines for boring and drilling by percussion—Trouillet’s excavator—Drilling ma¬ 
chines actuated by steam or compressed air—Sommeilier’s drilling engine—Doring’s 
drill—Bergstroem’s drill—Haupt’s drill—Beaumont and Locock’s drilling engine— 
Drilling by rotation of the tools—Lisbet and Jacquet’s borer—Leschot’s drill—De La 
Rocbe-Tollay and Perret’s boring apparatus—Machines for cutting out coal.—pp 
32-52. 


TRANSPORTATION, HOISTING, AND PUMPING. 

CHAPTER III. 

UNDERGROUND TRAMMING; HOISTING AND PUMPING ENGINES. 

Introductory — Transportation underground ; tramming — Evrar’s lubricating axle- 
boxes—Examples of underground transportation—Hoisting engines—Steam brakes— 
Diameter of winding drums—Iron derricks—Pumping and draining machinery— 
Cornish engines—Ordinary pumping engines—Raising water by guided kibbles— 
Chain pump—Russian pump.—pp. 53-63. 

CHAPTER IV. 

MAN-ENGINES AND PARACHUTES. 

Descent of miners by means of fixed ladders—Lowering men by means of cables—Con¬ 
struction of the man-engine—The rods—Landing places or stages—Support of the 
ro( l, s —Hydraulic regulators—Movement of the man-engine—Parachutes for the pre¬ 
vention of accidents to cages.—pp. 64-81. 




6 


CONTENTS. 


MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


CHAPTER V. 


ORE-CRUSHING, AND ORE-DRESSING MACHINERY AND PROCESSES. 


Introductory notice of the condition of the art—Substitution of iron for wood in ore- 
dressing machines—Ore-breaking and crushing machines—Blake’s rock-breaker, its 
construction and operation—Crushing by rollers—Stamp-mills—Rittinger’s improved 
stamp-mill—Iron-stem stamps—Ore-dressing machinery and processes—Machines 
for classifying or sizing crushed ores—Treatment of stamp stuff—Washing by sieves 
and jigs—Separation of ores by falling through a column of water—Slime separa¬ 
tors—Shaking tables and circular buddies—Chain elevators—Conclusion.—pp. 82-104. 


LIST OF PLATES. 

Plate I. —Tools fok boring large shafts. 

Plate II. —Boring and Drilling Machines. 

Plate III. —Drilling and Coal-cutting Machines. 





L—BORING, DRILLING, AND EXCA¬ 
VATING. 


CHAPTER I. 

BORING SHAFTS OF LARGE SECTION, AND ARTE¬ 
SIAN-WELL BORING. 


Introduction—Boring large mining shafts in the department of Moselle- 
Surface PREPARATIONS—TOOLS AND METHODS OF BORING—TUBBING—CONCRET¬ 
ING—Tools used at the second shaft—Lining the shafts—Operation of low¬ 
ering THE SECTIONS OF. TUBBING—TlIE MOSS-BOX—GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON 
BORING APPARATUS—KIND’S NEW TREPAN—SINKING AND BORING ARTESIAN WELLS— 

Tools of Degous^e and Laurent—Trepan with drop—Trepan of Messrs. Dru 
Brothers. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Until within a few years tools and apparatus for boring into the earth 
to great depths were used almost exclusively for obtaining water, or to 
explore for beds of coal or for mineral deposits. Fifty years ago the art 
of boring was in a primitive condition, as practiced by the well-borers of 
Artois and Italy; but now, thanks to the French societies of art, agricul¬ 
ture, and industry, it has received a new impulse, and scientific engineers 
have been called to project and direct extensive operations of this nature. 
Under their influence the art which was so long neglected has been 
rapidly developed, and the boring rod has passed from the hands ot 
workmen simply into those of skillful engineers. The humble boring rod 
of Bernard Palissy has now been converted into an engine which is 
applied in many ways, and which accomplishes results at the depth of 
several hundreds of metres as complicated and difficult as any which may 
lie attained at or near the surface. 

The diameters of artesian wells formerly did not exceed 0 ra .30, (11.81 
inches,) but they have been increased regularly, until at Passy, near 
Paris, an artesian well was commenced at more than one metre in dia¬ 
meter, and was completed with a diameter of 0 m .70 at the bottom. It 
is now known to be possible to sink shafts, either for wells or for mining 
purposes, with diameters as great as 4 m .10, or over thirteen feet, and 
through strata of great hardness. 

Apparatus for these purposes, shown in the Exposition by Messrs. 
Kind and Chaudron, Degousee. Charles Laurent, and by Dru Brothers, 
mark the new era in the art of sinking shafts and wells, and make it evi¬ 
dent that the new methods and engines are destined to have a great influ- 



8 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


ence upon the development of coal-fields, especially such as underlie per¬ 
meable strata heavily charged with water, and alternating with imperme¬ 
able beds of solid rock, as in the coal basins of Mons and La Moselle, 
in France. 

I.—BOEING LARGE MINING SHAFTS. 

These new methods of boring shafts avoid the necessity of pumping 
out the water during the operations of sinking, as must always be done 
when the work is performed by hand labor. This method of working in 
a shaft full of-water is called in France a niveau plein , in distinction 
to the other and old methods of working with the shaft drained, called 
a niveau plat. 

The importance of this mode of sinking will be evident from the fol¬ 
lowing brief notice of the coal basin of Saarbruck. This basin extends 
beyond the limits of the Rhine provinces, in the department of La 
Moselle. The coal occurs under barren strata, composed of the (gres des 
Vosges ) sandstone formation of the Vosges, and the new red sandstone 
formation, (gres rouge.) The formations are at first very silicious and full 
of fissures, giving free passage to water. They then become argillaceous, 
and finally, near the junction with the coal measures, are impermeable 
to water. 

Eleven mining concessions have been made in this department since 
1820, and in 1858 it was estimated that twenty-one millions of francs had 
been expended, and chiefly in prospecting. 

Boring and tubbing (lining the shaft) from the surface was completely 
successful for the first time, from 1854 to 1850, at St. Vaast, and later at 
Bessaix, in Belgium, in 1802 and 1803 5 but in these two first attempts 
the water-bearing strata were scarcely 0 m .70 thick, and the pits were of 
small dimensions. 

I 11 order to explain the apparatus and these methods of sinking in 
detail, we give a description of the work of sinking shafts of large dimen¬ 
sions in the department of the Moselle. 

SHAFTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MOSELLE. 

The works about to be described were executed at L’Hopital (Moselle) 
for the St. Avoid company, represented by Messrs. Pereire and Morny, 
upon the method called the niveau plein of Messrs. Kind and Chaudron, 
under the direction of Mr. Levy, the company’s engineer. The work 
was under the superintendence of Mr. Chatelain, engineer, formerly a 
pupil of the Eeole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures of Paris. Two pits 
were sunk; one for an air-shaft (No. 1 ) with a diameter of l m .80 within 
the tubbing, and 2 m .56 in its greatest diameter; the other (or No. 2 ) 
for a winding or hoisting shaft was bored with a diameter of 4 m . 10 , and 
was 3 m .40 when finished. The operations, according to this method, suc¬ 
ceed iu the following order: 

1. Construction upon the surface—buildings and derricks. 

2. Boring the pits. 


MINING-BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


9 


3. Lowering the tubbing. 

4. Puddling or packing. 

5. Packing at tlie base of the tubbing. 

BORING SHAFT No. 1. 


Surface preparations. —The preliminary operations consisted in 
the construction of the necessary buildings for the engines and tools, and 
the erection of a derrick over the site of the pit. All these were of tem¬ 
porary construction, intended to be used merely during the progress of 
the work. 

The derrick was made of four supports strongly framed together, and 
sustaining a platform about thirty feet above the surface of the ground. 
Upon this a railway or tramroad was laid for the trucks, which carried 
the boring tools and rods. 


The engines for sinking comprised the capstan , the jumper , and the 
donkey-engine. The capstan was used for lowering and hoisting the 
boring tools in the pits, and for lowering the tubbing or lining of the shaft. 
The engines used at L’Hdpital had a nominal force of 25 horse power. 
The diameter of the cylinder was 0 m .56, and the length of stroke 0 m .70. 
The respective diameters of the gearing were l m .70 and 0 m .35. Admit¬ 
ting an effective pressure of three atmospheres, the iidtial force upon 
the driving shaft was 48,513 kilogrammes. These machines worked reg- 
ularly; nevertheless we think it would be well to increase the size of the 
engine, inasmuch as the tendency is constantly to an increase of the size 
and weight of tools in use. 

The first rope used at the air-shaft had a section of 54 square centime¬ 
tres, capable of sustaining a strain of 5,400 kilogrammes. It was made 
of good hemp $ but after working for one year, it broke in lifting a trepan 
weighing 3,858 kilogrammes. The tool fell from a height of 86 metres, 
taking with it 17 metres of the rope. This accident occasioned a stop¬ 
page of nine days. The cable was replaced by another having a section 
of 85 square centimetres, and after using it for fourteen months the work 
was suspended for three days in order to make a new splice. 

The second machine—the jumper—was made of an engine cylinder, 
open at the bottom and closed at the top. The piston-rod was connected 
directly with the wooden beam, carrying the tool for cutting and boring 
at its other end. By the alternate lifting and falling of this tool with 
the attached beam, the rock was cut away. The diameter of the piston 
of the jumper was 0 m .60, and the greatest length of stroke was one 
metre. The jumper did'not require any repairs during the whole opera¬ 
tion of sinking the shaft. 

The third machine—the donkey-engine—was used to work a pump for 
hot and for cold water. It is indispensable for the supply of the boiler, 
as the capstan and the jumper work irregularly. Experience has shown 
that the feed-pumps should be in duplicate, so as to avoid the necessity 
of stopping for repairs. 


10 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


The preparations for sinking the air-shaft were commenced in October, 
1802, and were finished in the following month of April. The expense 

4 

was as follows : 

Francs, 

Buildings.28,302. 05 

Machines and tools. 37,320.91 

Total. 05,029.50 


Boring the pits. —Before commencing the sinking with the special 
tools, a preparatory pit was sunk to a depth of 21 m .40, and was lined with 
masonry to a diameter of 2 m .80 up to within five metres of the surface, 
where the diameter was increased to four metres. This shoulder in the 
stone lining afforded a foundation for a platform. 

The sinking was accomplished by two different operations. First, a 
central pit of l m .37 was sunk and then enlarged to 2 m .20. The debris 
of this enlargement fell into the first pit. The tubbing was inserted in 
the enlarged pit. 

The boring tools employed in these operations will now be described: 
the scraper, the scrape-hook, and the different apparatus used indiscrim¬ 
inately in the two pits will be afterward noticed. 

The little trepan first employed is represented by Fig. 1 , Plate I. 
It weighs 2,085 kilogrammes, and is formed of two principal parts—the 
fork and the blade. The blade is l m .26 long, and is provided with teeth 
of cast-steel, or of iron faced with steel, intended to cut the rock. These 
teeth increase the diameter of the trepan to l m .37. The blade is joined 
by means of keys to two strong iron arms, which are united above with 
a central shaft, which was connected by a slide with the suspension 
apparatus. 

This trepan worked easily through the sandstone of the Vosges —gres 
des Vosges. The fall given was 0 m .30. The progress per day was at first 
0 m .79, and it diminished to 0 m .52, and then to 0 m .28 at a depth of 121 
metres 5 but at 135 metres in depth, in a stratum of strongly aggregated 
silicious red sandstone, the progress was only 0 m .15 and 0 m .ll. It was 
soon found that this trepan was too light to stand the shocks of the 
blows, and three successive ruptures of the stem made it necessary to 
procure a stronger trepan, shown by Fig. 2, Plate I, weighing 3,858 
kilogrammes, divided among the various parts as follows: 

Kilos. 

Body of trepan. 2, 700 

Guide. 340 

Blade .. 230 

Four teeth of the head. 148 

Four intermediate teeth. 88 

Plates and keys. 352 

Total weight... 3, 858 




















MINING—BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


11 


The teeth are fixed upon this mass of iron by means of keys. The 
sockets for the reception of the tenons are conical, and are 0 m .10 in diame¬ 
ter at the base and 0 m .09 at the top. The progress in the work made by 
this trepan, from the commencement, was from 0 m .28 to 0 m .32, and even 
as high as 0 m .83, giving a mean of 0 m .39, being three times as much as 
made by the first trepan. This shows clearly that the heavy trepans are 
best for the hard strata. 

The trepan which was first used for the enlargement of the pit to the 
diameter of 2 ra .56 had a blade 2 m .46 in length; it was formed like the little 
trepan first used, and had a blade fixed upon a fork, and weighed in all 
3,980 kilogrammes, divided as follows: 

Kilos. 

Fork. 2,500 

Blade. 906 

Six teeth of the head. 102 

Three intermediate teeth. 48 

Two plates. 430 

Total weight. 3,980 

4 

In order to avoid the frequent breaking out of the teeth, this trepan 
was lifted only 0 m .20. The progress made with it daily was from l m .10 
to 0 m .18 at the last, when a stratum of hard sandstone was encountered 
and the weight of the trepan was found to be insufficient. Two blades, 
one above the other, were then united to the fork by rings and bolts, as 
shown in Fig. 3, Plate I. Each of these blades carried the teeth so as 
to cut the strata in two steps. This new tool weighed about 5,000 kilo¬ 
grammes. It worked four months, and required frequent repairs. The 
rate of progress per day was only 0 m .ll. It was then decided to replace 
this trepan by a more massive one, weighing 8,000 kilogrammes, and 
2 m .50 in diameter, constructed as shown in Fig. 4, Plate I. With this 
the progress was increased to 0 m .34 a day, thus showing a second time 
that in hard rock heavy trepans are required. 

The diameter of the pit at the beginning was 2 m .5G; at 134 ra depth it 
was reduced to 2 m .45; at 155 m depth it was reduced to 2 m .40; from 155 m .00 
to 155 m .50 depth it was reduced to 2 m .33; from 155 m .50 to 158 m .00 depth 
it was reduced to 2 m .25. At this depth the little pit was continued for a 
depth of seven metres, and a circular curb of 0 m .40 was fixed to receive 
the base of the tubbing. 

The work of sinking this air-shaft lasted about twenty-eight months 
and a half. The central pit required 392 days, including 46 days during 
which work was stopped, so that only 346 of actual work were necessary. 
The enlarging operations to a diameter of 2 m .56 occupied 469 days, 
including 148J days of no work. The depth of the central pit being 
143">.7<), (equal to 471.46 feet,) the mean progress for each working day 
was 4™.15, (13 feet,) and the enlarging to 2 m .40 gave a daily mean of 
4 m .25 for a depth of 136 m .60. 











12 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


The expenses of boring were as follows: 


Salaries and wages. 

Fuel. 

Oil and grease. 

Ropes. 

Iron, steel, and repairs to tools 
Cartage and sundries. 


Francs. 

55,039. 81 
12,513.11 
2,381. 71 
2,987. 20 
12,530. 90 
7, 560. 66 


Total 


93,013. 39 


Tubbing.— Before entering upon a description of the operation of 
tubbing the air-shaft, it will be best to explain the system adopted by 
Messrs. Kind and Cliaudron. 

The tubbing of the pits is accomplished by lowering into them a 
metallic cylinder, which finally rests upon a proper seat or foundation, 
carefully cut for it at the bottom. This cylinder is made smaller than 
the bore of the pits, and the space between the cylinder and the walls is 
afterward puddled or filled in with concrete, so as to make a solid con¬ 
tinuous lining. The metallic cylinder or tubbing is formed in sections 
of a cylinder, made of cast iron, and provided with flanges projecting 
inward, by which they are securely bolted together. (See Figs. 5, 6, 7, 
and 8, Plate 1.) One section or length is added after another to the top 
as the whole descends in the pit, so that at the completion of the work 
the whole pit is lined with iron from the top to the bottom. The outer 
surface of all these sections of the cylinder is quite smooth; but in the 
inside, besides the flanges for the bolts, there are horizontal ribs or webs 
cast with each segment, and intended to strengthen them. 

The thickness of the tubbing will evidently vary with the diameter of 
the pits and that of the different segments, according to their position 
in the pit. Messrs. Kind and Cliaudron determine the thickness by the 
following formula: 

E = 0™ 02 x ~ • 
x 500 

E represents the thickness of the tub, 11 the radius, and P the pressure 
expressed in kilogrammes upon the square. The flanges for bolting the 
rings together should be carefully faced in a lathe, and exactly at right 
angles with the perpendicular of the shaft. The joints are made tight 
by a packing of lead, in the form of a ring, 0 m .003 thick, covering all the 
surface of the flange, so that after the bolts are tightened there will be a 
surplus of lead along the points suitable for calking. The first attempts 
to secure a tight packing for the joint at the bottom of the shaft to prevent 
the entrance of water at the lower part of the tubbing were unsuccess¬ 
ful, but the difficulty was finally overcome by the use of what is now 
known as the a moss-box.” This consists of an attachment to the lower 
end of the tubbing of an inner tub, or cylinder, provided with a flange 
at the bottom projecting outward. The bottom of the tubbing is also 













MINING—BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


13 


provided with a flange projecting outward toward the sides of the pit. 
The space between these two flanges is filled with a packing or wrapping 
of moss.—(See Fig. 5, Plate I.) This moss is securely held in its place by 
a web or net drawn tightly around it. The whole, including the inner 
cylinder, is suspended by iron tie-rods, which prevent its falling out from 
the bottom of the tubbing, but which do not interfere with the descent of 
the tubbing upon the moss when the lower flange reaches and rests in the 
seat or shoulder cut in the rock at the bottom of the pit. At this time the 
whole weight of the tubbing being allowed to press upon the moss by 
means of the upper flange, it is compressed and extended outward forci¬ 
bly against the side of the pit, and thus forms a complete and perfectly 
water-tight joint. Its office and operation is similar to that of the “ seed- 
bag” used by the borers of petroleum wells in Pennsylvania. The out¬ 
ward movement of the moss is facilitated by thin segments of sheet iron, 
0 m .005 thick, so placed at the upper and lower parts of the moss box, at 
an angle of fifty or fifty-five degrees, that they present a sloping surface, 
upon which the moss slides outward when the pressure commences. 

The operation of lowering the tubbing into its place in the pit is easily 
performed by means of the arrangements about to be described. Upon 
the lower edge of the last section but one of the cylinder a hemispherical¬ 
shaped bottom is attached, which closes the lower end of the column. 
The attachment to the tubbing is securely made by means of a flange 
bolted to an annular plate.—(Sec Fig. (>, Plate I.) This hemispherical 
bottom plate has a central opening into a cast-iron column rising within 
the tubbing. This column is called the equilibrium column, and at dis¬ 
tances of from seven to eight metres it is pierced with holes 0 m .01 
in diameter, for the purpose of admitting water to the inside of the 
tubbing as fast as the latter is sunk in the pit. These holes are closed 
by screws, and as the tubbing is lowered into the pit the water rises 
around it and within the open column in the center, until the weight of 
the water displaced is equal to the weight of the tubbing, thus causing 
the whole to float in the pit. By removing some of the screws closing 
the holes, water is admitted to the interior, and the cylinder is made to 
sink. It is found in practice that it is best to allow sufficient water to 
enter to give a weight of from twenty-five to thirty tons to the tubbing, 
or, in other words, to permit so much of its weight to be suspended from 
the surface as to secure its vertical position and its descent in a proper 
manner. 

The apparatus for suspension consists of four upright posts, sustaining 
a platform through which the six suspending iron rods pass, and are 
terminated in long screws. This platform must be strong enough to sus¬ 
tain a weight of thirty tons. Its height above the ground must be equal 
to that of the four lowest sections of the cylinder, including the moss-box. 
All these, together with the first sections of the equilibrium column, are 
first united before being lowered into the pit. Each suspension rod is 
made in three parts: First, the lower rod, the lower end of which is cut 


14 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


with a screw-thread, for the reception of a stop-nut after it has been 
passed through the eye of a flange; second, an adjusting screw, (the 
minimum length of which is four metres,) placed at the upper part of the 
rod, upon which a nut works by means of gearing and a crank on the 
platform, as shown in Fig. 7, Plate 1. The third part of the rods con¬ 
sists of the intermediate lengths, each four metres long, and coupled to¬ 
gether like the boring rods. These are added as the tubbing descends. 

The connecting flange at the bottom of the tubbing, through which 
these suspending rods pass, is composed of six segments, bolted together 
and to the collar of the third section of the tubbing. Its form is shown 
by Fig. 8. It has six eyes to receive the suspending rods. 

After this connecting flange lias been bolted to the tubbing and the 
moss-box, the hemispherical bottom and the four lowest sections are 
placed under the platform, and directly over the mouth of the pit; the 
adjusting screws are united to the connecting flange by intermediate 
rods, and the whole apparatus is brought into suspension by means of 
the nuts on the top of the scaffolding. Two workmen are placed at each 
screw, and by turning the nuts this first portion of the tubbing descends 
into the pit. After it has been lowered four metres, (the length of the 
screw on the rods,) the tubbing is suspended to beams resting across 
the mouth of the pit by means of liolding-hooks catching upon the 
shoulders of the suspending rods, as in the case of boring apparatus. 
The screws are then detached and are raised by means of the nuts, so as 
to leave a distance of four metres between their lower ends and the rods 
below. A new set of intermediate rods is then added, the suspending 
hooks are removed, the tubbing again rests upon the screws above, and 
the lowering is proceeded with as before. This operation is repeated until 
the tubbing floats in the water of the pit. It is then made fast as before, 
by the suspension rods, to the beams at the mouth of the pit. The 
screws are raised to a height of four metres, and then the next section to 
be added is brought forward and placed on beams over the pit. Fresh 
intermediate rods are then added through this new section to the rods 
below, and the suspending hooks are removed. The new section is then 
raised a little by means of the capstan, so as to permit the removal of 
the beams upon which it rested. It is then lowered by means of the 
capstan into the pit, until it rests upon the top of the tubbing below. 
The joint is then made, and the adjusting screws are worked to effect a 


further descent of the whole tubbing. 

When in this manner all the sections have been united, and the me¬ 
tallic lining is upon the point of reaching the bottom of the pit, the rim 
of rock or seat upon which the flange of the moss-box is to rest requires 
to be cleaned. This operation is effected by lowering through the equi¬ 
librium column a tool represented by Fig. 9, which scrapes the bottom 
of the pit and throws into the central pit any fragments of rock or accu¬ 
mulations of earth which rest upon the foundation. The lowering is then 
continued until the lower flange of the moss-box rests gently upon the 


MINING-BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


15 


Tim of rock. The weight of the tubbing increases slowly as the water 
enters through the holes of the equilibrium column; the moss-box is 
shortened, the moss is expanded and compressed against the sides of the 
pit and becomes perfectly tight when the weight of the tubbing rests upon 
it. At this moment the tubbing must not be abandoned to itself, or it 
may incline to one side. It is therefore secured carefully at the top by 
three or four beams fixed upon the last section. The puddling or con¬ 
creting can then be proceeded with, and the suspension rods can be 
removed. 

Tubbing pit ISA 1.—The following are the details of the operation of 
lining the air-shaft, or No. 1: The tubbing was composed of seventy sec¬ 
tions, each two metres high, and I m .80 in diameter inside of the flanges. 
The thickness of the cylindrical part was as follows: Q m .040 (lj inch) 
for the sections of the lower part; 0 m .043 for the ten succeeding, and 
then successively 0 m .040, 0 m .037, 0 m .034, 0 m .031, and 0 m .028u 

Each of the sections was provided with two internal flanges 0 m .07 
broad and 0 m .03 thick. There were in addition two little ribs 0 m .04 thick 
and 0 m .025 deep. These were cast at equal distances between the 
flanges. The flanges had twenty-eight holes for bolts, each 0 m .03 in 
diameter and 0 U1 .21 apart. The entire tubbing weighed 258 tons, in¬ 
cluding the bolts. It was furnished by the Fourchambault works. 

The moss-box cylinder was cast without any flange at its lower part, 
and an oak ring was fitted to it to form the base. The width of this box 
was 0 m .175, its height l m .60, representing a capacity of 1,824 cubic centi¬ 
metres. The pressure of the tubbing upon the moss reduced it to one- 
sixth of its former volume. 

The lowering of the tubbing was effected without the least difficulty 
the twelve first sections took about fifteen days, but the operation was 
afterward accelerated and two sections were added daily. Before the 
addition of the thirtieth section the tubbing was heavier than the water 
displaced; it was afterward necessary to introduce water to the interior 
by the equilibrium column. When the moss-box reached the rocky foun¬ 
dation the compression of the moss commenced, and the equilibrium 
column maintained its upright position. The tubbing was then allowed 
to fill with water for two days, in order to gradually obtain the maximum 
compression of the moss. 

The descent of this tubbing lasted forty days, and the expense attend¬ 
ing the operation was as follows : 

Francs. 

Cost of sections._... 00, 420. 04 

Lead lor joints .....-.— 1,005. 00 

Bolts, &c.. 1,340. 98 

Red lead, &c...- -.-. 95. 20 

Netting..*. 21.10 

Moss... 34.80 

Wood _____ 345.00 








PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


10 


. Francs. 

Salary and wages. 3,447. 82 

Fuel burned. 1,375. 23 

Oil and grease. 258. 08 

Sundries... 3,560. 80 

Total. 78,577.53 

Concreting pit No. 1 .—It lias been shown that the metallic column 
which forms tlie tubbing can be maintained perfectly tight throughout its 
entire height, provided the joints are carefully made. At the bottom the 
moss-box, resting on impermeable soil r is intended to cutoff all communi¬ 
cation between the upper water-level and the pit to be sunk below. Not¬ 
withstanding all these precautions, it is indispensable, in order to insure a 
permanent impermeability of all the joints, to make a complete concreting 
around the entire height of the tubbing, within the annular space left be¬ 
tween the soil and the tubbing itself. The expense of concreting pit No. 1 
was relatively of small amount. The work lasted twenty-five days. Three 
sets of workmen were employed, working three spoons of a mean capacity 
of till *ee hectolitres. Each set was composed of six men—two for work¬ 
ing the windlass, to which the spoon was attached by a rope; two for 
working the windlass for the piston-rope; and, lastly, two on the work¬ 
ing stage to fill the three spoons as they were raised from the pit. The 
mortar was brought, in a case, upon the working stage by the capstan. 

The spoon for concreting (Fig. 10) was made of two sheets of iron 
united on two wooden uprights. It is provided at its upper part with a 
piston, which forms part of a movable bottom placed at its lower part. 
By pushing the piston the bottom is expelled and the mortar filling the 
case falls out. The concrete used had the following composition: Vassy 
or Rappe cement, (Haute Saone,) one-fourth; hydraulic lime, one-fourth; 
sand, one-fourth; and powdered trass, one-fourtli. 

The space to be filled around the tubbing was about 236 cubic metres, 
neglecting the fissures of the soil; 284 cubic metres of materials were 
employed. The concrete was allowed to harden for one month. Lastly, 
the water was pumped out, and the false bottom of the tubbing and the 
equilibrium column were taken apart and removed. The moss box was 
found to be in good order and perfectly water-tight. 

The expense for the concreting was as follows: Francs. 

Salary and wages. 4,440. 43 

Cement.... 1,396.33 

Trass. 1,329. 50 

Lime. 1,586.00 

Fuel burned.. 599.11 

Oil and grease. 178.05 

Sundries. 2,281.78 

Total.... 


11,811.20 





















MINING—BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


17 


A coffer-dam is sometimes inserted at the base of the tubbing. This 
operation is not indispensable, but increases the solidity of the base of 
the tubbing. It consisted in placing at two metres below the moss-box 
two coffer-dams of cast-iron, 0 m .25 high each, and bolted together; then 
a cylinder l m .6() high. It was formed of six pieces, bolted vertically, 
which were united on the one part to the coffer-dams and on the other 
part to the bottom of the moss-box, where a little horizontal packing was 
necessary for the adjustment. 

The expenses of packing can be estimated as follows: 


F rancs. 

Cost of false tubbing. 2,347. 20 

Salary and wages. 2,170. 23 

Fuel burned. 897. 20 

Oil and grease. 140. 75 

Sundries. 430.10 


Total. 0,000.40 


i 

Fig. 11 represents the two coffer-dams and the adjusting cylinder. 

To sum up, the entire cost of sinking through watered strata to a 
depth of 140 metres, the internal diameter of the pit being l m .80, 
amounted to 250,041.10 francs, divided thus : 


Francs. 

Preliminary works. 05, 020. 50 

Sinking the pit.. 03, 013. 30 

Tubbing. 78,577. 53 

Concreting.. 11, 811. 20 

Packing. G, 000. 59 


Total. 255,041.27 


Which gives an expense of 1,000 francs per running metre. 

MAIN SHAFT No. 2. 

The information which we have furnished upon the construction of the 
air-shaft applies to the pit No. 2. It will suffice to mention the modifi¬ 
cations in this second piece of work. 

The tower for sinking the winze of the main shaft was built in masonry, 
and was intended to serve subsequently as the building for extraction. 

The capstan was of the same size as the one employed for shaft No. 1; 
yet it became evident that, notwithstanding the exaggerated dimensions 
of the large gearing in this machine, it was still too weak; it broke at 
the boss, and the repairs occasioned a loss of two days. 

The rope was 0 m .30 broad by 0 m .0G in thickness, corresponding 
with a practical resistance of eighteen tons. Notwithstanding these 
dimensions, it was necessary to replace it after working eleven 
months. One year later a stoppage of two days was necessary for 
2 M 
























18 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


repairs to the new rope; and toward the end of the work its rupture 
appeared so threatening that another stoppage of sixteen days was 
required to put it in good working order. The jumper piston was 
0 m .70 in diameter. Several accidents occurred with the machine. 
In the first place, it became necessary to change a segment and two 
springs broken in the piston, which caused a stoppage of six days; at 
a later period the piston-rod broke, and one month later one of the 
piston-rod guides also gave way ; these different accidents necessitated 
a stoppage of eight days. 

The donkey-engine was common to the two engines of shafts Nos. 1 
and 2. We have already mentioned that a duplicate engine was neces¬ 
sary to insure regularity in the sinking. 

The preliminary works were commenced in September, 1803; they 
lasted nine months, and the expenses attending them may be thus dis¬ 


tributed : 

Francs. 

Building. 4G, 702. 47 

Machines and tools. 57,809.30 


Total. 104,571.77 


Tools for boring.— The boring tools (Fig. 1) and the first enlarging 
tool of the shaft No. 1, which we have previously described, were again 
employed for boring the main shaft ; but to reach the diameter of 4 m .10 
a third tool was used, the blade of which was 3 m .95 wide, and with the 
teeth 4 m .10. On account of these dimensions, they were obliged to make 
it of five pieces, united by bolts and keys. That part which contains 
the teeth was attached to the three arms united to a central rod adapted 
to the apparatus to which the boring tool is suspended. It was soon 
proved that the apparatus weighing eight tons was too light, and two 
additional blades had to be attached to it in order to augment its weig lit. 
One only of these blades was provided with teeth. The weight of the 
tool with these two additional blades reached about ten tons, but it 
proved still too light, and the one represented by Fig. 12, weighing four' 
teen tons, was used; and this weight was considered necessary in order 
to produce the best effect on hard rocks. 

The work of sinking with the boring tools was preceded by the com 
struction of a preliminary shaft 21 metres deep, lined with masonry* 
having a diameter of 5 m .50 up to the working stage, at five metres from 
the ground, and for 4 m .50 at the lower part. 

The boring operations were divided into two periods. The first coni' 
menced on the 9th of June, 1804; and on the 18th of September, 1805,. 
the central shaft had attained a depth of 148 m .03 with the small forked 
trepan, (Fig. 1.) The daily progress varied from 0™.89 to 0 m .2G, 

The enlargement was immediately made to 4 m .10 with the large two- 
bladed trepan, and at that period (September 18, 1805) it reached a 
depth of 121 m .08^ 








MINING—BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


19 


This first period lasted 448J days. The working of the small trepan 
was only stopped one day, and that of the larger 224 days; and it must 
be remembered that the small trepan had already traversed hard strata. 

The second part of the operation was more difficult, on account of the 
hardness of the rocks. The large trepan was too light, while it could not 
be reasonably augmented on account of the weakness of the machines 
that worked it. 

It was decided to bore the large shaft by three successive operations. 
A central hole, l m .37, was first bored with the small trepan, (Fig. 2;) it 
was then enlarged to 2 ra .50 with the massive trepan, (Fig. 4;) so that 
there only remained for removal by the large tool an annular surface of 
about 0 m .75. 

The central shaft reached in this second period of 42 days, without 
stoppage, a depth of 170 m .85; the mean daily progress was 0 m .54. 
The enlargement to 2 m .50 required 103J days, including 13J days’ 
stoppage, to reach a depth of 104 m .08; the daily progress averaged 
0 m .38. With the large trepan, in order to increase the depth from 
121 m .08 to 159 m .28—that is to say, to enlarge to 4 m .10 for a total height 
of 38 m .20—210 days were required, including 43 days of stoppage: the 
daily progress, therefore, was only 0 m .22. 

Notwithstanding the small amount of labor to be performed by the 
large trepan, the accidents which occurred proved that the strength of 
the blade, of the arms of the holding bolts, as well as the teeth, was 
insufficient to act with effect against the red sandstone. 

The bottom of the shaft on which the moss-box was placed was 159 
metres below the surface, and the labor lasted twenty-nine months and 
a half. The expenses attending this operation were divided as follows : 


Francs. 

Salary and wages. 72,738.51 

Fuel burned. 27, 524. GO 

Oil and grease. 4, 720. 49 

Eopes. . 3, G02. 55 

Iron, steel, and repairing tools. 16,469. 83 

Sundries. 16, 603. 50 


Total.141,659.31 


Tubbing shaft No. 2.—The tubbing of this shaft was formed of 94 
cylindrical sections, 3 m .40 minimum diameter at the flanges. The height 
of the first section was l m .75, and that of the others l m .50. The flanges 
were 0 m .04 thick and 0 m .08 wide on the inside of the cylinder. Between 
the flanges there are two little horizontal collars 0 m .04 high and 0 m .04 
deep, which were placed at equal distances apart. The general thickness- 
of the cylindrical part was 0 m .0G0 for the 14 lower sections, 0 ra .055 for the 
following, and successively 0 m .052, 0 m .048,0 m .044,0 m .040,0 m .036,.0 m .032,. . 
0 m .028. 












20 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


The shoulders or joints were faced perpendicularly with the axis, so 
as to make perfectly parallel surfaces. These sections, adjusted and 
placed one on the other, make a cylinder 141 metres high. Each flange 
has 50 equidistant holes 0 m .03 in diameter, drilled in the center of the 
flange. 

In order to do away with the use of the wooden shoe which had been 
fixed to the bottom of the moss-box in shaft No. 1, an outer flange was 
cast with the piece, which is much stronger. The moss-box is l m .75 
high j consequently the packing during the descent of the column was 
l In .54 high by 0 m .17 wide, representing a capacity of three cubic metres. 

The cast-iron equilibrium bottom was made of one piece, the maximum 
diameter of which at the flange is 3 m .36, which admitted of its passing 
inside the tubbing. This false bottom was bolted on an adjustment ring, 
as shown in Fig. 0 . The same equilibrium column was employed as for 
shaft No. 1. 

The castings for this shaft were made of refined iron manufactured at 
Hayanges, in the works of Mr. De Wendel. The cylinders were tried at 
a pressure of 28 atmospheres for the largest, of 24 for the second series, 
and successively 21, 18, 15, 12, i), 6 , 3 atmospheres for the parts com 
posing the following series. The entire metallic column weighed about 
635 tons, including the bolts and other accessories. 

The lowering of the column was conducted in a similar manner to the 
one mentioned for the shaft No. 1. The moss-box having touched the 
bottom, the column descended regularly, compressing the moss, which 
was reduced to 0 m .15 thickness—about one-tenth of its primitive volume. 
The weight of the tubbing exerted a pressure of 32 kilogrammes on the 
square centimetre. On the 29tli of December, 1866, all the parts of the 
tubbing were ready for lowering, and on the 16th of February, 1867, the 
moss-box came in contact with the sole of the pit. 

Thus, this work was effected in fifty days. The expense was: 


Francs. 

Price of sections. 138, 494 . 34 

Lead for joints. 3, 601.10 

Bolts, &c. 4 , 915.20 

Bed lead. 126. 40 

Tar for painting. 443 . so 

Netting. 25. 00 

Moss. 40.00 

Wood. 1,461.05 

Salary and wages. 8,456. 44 

Fuel burned. 3 , 357 . 45 

Oil and grease. 754 . 49 

Various expenditures. 7 , 544.79 


Total . 169,220.07 



















MINING—BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


21 


Concreting and packing shaft No. 2.— The operation of laying 
the concrete in this shaft was exactly the same as for shaft No. 1, except 
that four spoons were used. The concrete was composed of the same 
materials. The operation commenced on the 1st of March, 1867, was 
finished on the 6th of April following, and cost 15,000 francs. 

The operation of packing was effected in the same manner as for the 
shaft No. 1, with this difference, that the adjusting cylinder placed 
between the coffer-dams and the moss-box was two metres high. The 
cost of this labor was estimated at 10,000 francs. 

From wliat has been described, the cost of the shaft No. 2 can be 


estimated as follows: 

Francs. 

Preliminary works.. 104, 571. 77 

Boring the shaft. 141,659.31 

Piping. 169,220. 07 

Concreting.. 15, 000. 00 

Packing. 10,000. 00 


Total. 440, 451.15 


or at the rate of 3,100 francs per running metre. 

The preliminary works commenced in September, 1863, and on the 6th 
of April the concreting was finished; the work lasted three years and a 
half. 

BORING APPARATUS. 


The slide or jar represented by Pigs. 21 and 22, Plate I, is one of the 
important parts of the boring apparatus, since without it it would be 
scarcely possible to strike a blow with the trepan without breaking the 
rods. 

The boring rods in the operations described were eighteen metres 
long and eighteen square centimetres in section. Their dimensions were 
increased in order to sustain the great shocks to which they were exposed. 

The dredging spoon which was used for the removal of the debris is 
represented by Pig. 15. It was formed of a sheet-iron cylinder one 
metre in diameter and two metres high, with two valves at the bottom 
to facilitate emptying the mud when raised to the mouth of the pit. Its 
construction, it will be seen, is similar to the sand-pump used in boring 
petroleum wells, but it was much broader and shorter. Its capacity was 
about l m .50; consequently it would contain from three to four tons of 
debris, and this amount would be extracted at each elevation. It was 
so suspended, a little above the center of gravity, that it could be over¬ 
turned by a slight effort after removing a key which secured it in its 
vertical position while in the shaft. The hoisting was done by means of 
the capstan, a rope being used. 

Boring tools used at IIopital. —The hook represented by Pig. 
16 was used most when the boring rods were broken. Its epicycloidal 











22 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


form permits it to hook the rods which may be standing obliquely 
against the sides of the pit after a fracture. By turning the hook they 
are made to assume a vertical position, and are caught below the shoulder, 
and are brought into the narrow part of the hook, so that they can be 
raised. The pincers, la fauchere 1 (Fig. 17,) are for a similar purpose, 
and are adapted to seizing and raising rods that may have been broken 
immediately below the shoulder. The lower part is an annular shoe, or 
disk-shaped ring, which limits the separation of two blades or jaws 
pitted with sharp teeth on their inner surfaces. When this tool is used 
these jaws are kept open by a block of wood; but when it is brought 
over the rod or object to be seized the block is displaced by the end of 
the latter, and the jaws then close tightly upon the rod and hold it while 
it is raised out of the pit. 

The grasping hook (Fig. 18) was used with advantage to raise masses 
of iron or steel and the teeth of the trepan which became detached or 
broken during the work. It has two arms jointed like a parallelogram, 
on the ends of which the grasping hooks are placed. The rods which 
form the slide are loaded with a weight, placed as required on the cross¬ 
bar a a , and it is this load which produces the friction on the bottom. 
The rods are raised by means of a rope, the extremity of which is held 
at the surface. This tool is closed while it is suspended to the boring 
rod and while the load bears on the cross-bar a a; when it is lowered 
the load is raised by means of the rope, the boring rods are pushed 
down, and this causes the grasping irons to open. If at this moment 
the load is again placed on the cross-bar a a, and if, on the other hand, 
the boring rods are gently drawn up, the grasping hooks (dose and scrape 
the bottom, retaining tightly between them any hard object that they 
encounter. 

The stoppages and accidents which arose from the trepans employed 
at the works of L’Hopital, as well as those which occurred from the use 
of instruments too weak to resist the shocks, and the frequent repairs 
of the slide, led Mr. Kind to modify the construction of his trepans. Ho 
exhibited a model of a new description of tool, with which the fall is 
unimpeded, and which we will now brietly describe. 

The figure of the trepan (Fig. 19) shows that the teeth-holder, instead 
of having a smooth surface at its base, is graduated in steps, so as to 
cut the earth and rock in steps inclining toward the center of the pit. 
A guide fixed by four bolts to the teetli-liolder enters the central shaft 
and causes the enlarging tool to remain perfectly vertical. 

Three vertical arms or standards connect the teeth-holder with a 
double cross-bar placed at the upper part of the tool. Two oak bars are 
fixed to the arms and the cross-bar, and serve as guides for the tool at its 
upper part. The middle standard, or central shaft, is made long enough 
to be connected by keys and plates to the apparatus above, designed to 
give the unimpeded fall to the trepan. 

This apparatus for unimpeded or free fall is operated in the following 


MINING-BORING LARGE SHAFTS. 


23 


manner: When the entire apparatus is raised the water of the shaft 
bears on the disk (7, and the carriers e e are tightened under the blocks 
b b , which allows of the trepan being removed. During the descent the 
water opposes resistance to the disk, the carriers e e separate themselves 
by the action of the rods, and the trepan falls freely. When the trepan 
has to be raised, the wedges g g, which rise in contact with the blocks, 
allow of the entire apparatus being raised. ‘ 

This new description of trepan led Mr. Kind to believe that he might- 
make use of the dredging tool represented at Fig. 20. This is a cylin¬ 
drical tub or vessel, intended to receive the debris while the central shaft 
is being enlarged. It is slightly conical and provided with four arms 
which expand like a parachute and sweep around the top and sides of 
the smaller pit. The rock, crushed by the larger trepan sliding on the 
inclined bottom, falls into this vessel, and the broken teeth follow the 
same direction and no longer form an impediment to the work. This 
device is a very ingenious one, but experience must, however, decide 
whether this kind of spoon will meet Mr. Kind’s expectations. 

CONCLUSION. 

The successful boring of the Hopital shafts leaves no room to doubt 
the advantages of the system of boring a niveau plein ; and we recap¬ 
itulate these advantages as follows: 

1. Complete insulation of the watered strata , by means of the water-tight 

tubbing. 

2. Great strength of the lining of the shaft. —It is evident that the annu¬ 
lar circular tubbings are stronger than the segmental. The following 
experiment made at. Fourckambault will give an idea of the resistance 
which this cylindrical tubbing offers: A section l m .80 in diameter 
inside the flanges and 0 m .025 thick was submitted to an external pres¬ 
sure of 37 atmospheres; it resisted perfectly, while the pipe enveloping 
it, which was 0 m .0G5 thick besides the rims inside, broke from the inter¬ 
nal pressure. On the other hand, the pumping of the wafer which 
arises in the method called a niveau plat , produces excavations varying 
in size. The slides and broken strata which follow, besides being dan¬ 
gerous in future working, often produce disastrous effects on the sides 
of the shafts. 

3. Considerable reduction of expense. —In every case where water-bearing 
strata have to be traversed, the economy cannot be contested; thus, the 
two shafts at the Hopital have not cost 700,000 francs, while those of 
Carling, Merleback, and Stiring, in the same department, each cost sev¬ 
eral millions. 

4. Economy of time. —We have shown that, notwithstanding stoppages 
in the main shaft, the boring was effected in twenty-nine and a half 
months, and the lowering of the tubbing in four and a half months. It 
is to be expected that future works will be executed more rapidly than 
the first. 


24 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


5. Possibility of traversing all binds of strata , of whatever thickness or 
description. —Boring operations at great depths are very limited. Draw¬ 
ing off the water and making water-tight tubbing offer nearly insur¬ 
mountable difficulties, particularly so in traversing the sands of shifting 
soils. The extraction of the water itself becomes an insurmountable 
obstacle, irrespective of the means at the disposal of the miner. Un¬ 
doubtedly the boring a niveau plein at large diameters will necessi¬ 
tate great precaution, but the results obtained at Bessaix in 18G2 and 
1803, in traversing, with a diameter of 3 m .6o, a stratum of shifting soil 
eight metres thick, tend to show that the difficulties of this kind of work 
are not as great as they appear. 


II.—SINKING AND BOEING ABTESIAN WELLS. 


The apparatus exhibited by the houses of Degousee and Ch. Laurent 
and by Messrs. Dru Brothers is designed chiefly for sinking artesian 
wells of large diameter, but is equally applicable to sinking shafts of 
large section. 

The apparatus, doubtless, does not present, for the most part, the 
interest of a new invention; but in examining the details of its construc¬ 
tion, it is easy to see that the novel and diversified condition in which 
the sinkings have been executed, and the unforeseen accidents which 
these have produced, have been studied with great care and intelligence 
by these able engineers, and that all the teachings of practice have been 
profited by and have led to many important modifications and simplifi¬ 
cation of the forms of the tools. 

We have already stated, in describing the method of sinking a niveau 
plein , (sinking a shaft kept full of water,) that the boring rods appli¬ 
cable to artesian wells, before the wells of Passy were sunk, did not 
exceed 0 m .30 in diameter. To-day the two wells undertaken by the city 
of Paris—one at La Chapelle, by Messrs. Degousee and Oh. Laurent, 
the other at La Butte-aux-Cailles, near the Ivry station, by Messrs. Dru 
Brothers—have been commenced at a diameter of l m .80. 

We will now give some explanations of the tools and methods employed 
in boring these wells. It is evident that these tools and methods can be 
applied to sink mining shafts of three or four metres in diameter. 

The boring apparatus comprises two essential parts—the tools which 
serve to excavate the earth, and the appliances at the surface for work¬ 
ing or handling the tools, which become much more important as the 
diameter of the wells or shafts is increased. 


CONSTRUCTIONS AT THE SURFACE. 


The preparations for sinking made at the surface by the house of 
Degousee and Ch. Laurent, at the wells of La Chapelle, are completely 
different from those we have described as made at the wells of the 
Hbpital. Their preliminary work appears to be much better designed 


MINING—BORING ARTESIAN WELLS. 


25 


and executed, and tlie results obtained up to this day confirm the opin¬ 
ion. In order to show more distinctly the differences that exist between 
the mode of preparation which Air. Kind still follows and that followed 
by Messrs. Degousee and Ch. Laurent, we will describe, in a few words, 
the appliances for working the boring tools of the artesian wells of La 
Chapelle. 

The machine is worked by a horizontal steam-engine of 15 horse¬ 
power. The fly-wheel shaft makes 50 revolutions per minute. It carries, 
first, a pinion of 0 in .30 diameter; secondly, two brakes; thirdly, two 
clutches; fourthly and lastly, a pulley of l m .50 diameter. 

The pinion of 0 m .30 diameter drives a toothed wheel fixed on the axle 
of the drum of the capstan, upon which the chains for lifting the shafts of 
the borers are wound, and also the percussion and cleansing apparatus. 
The diameter of the drum of the capstan is 0 m .55; its length is l m .G0. 
It has a spiral groove which guides the chains and causes them to wind 
regularly upon it. The pulley of l m .50 diameter is belted to another 
pulley of l m .00 diameter, fixed at the extremity of an axle which carries 
at the other end a pinion of 0 m .40 diameter. This pinion is geared with 
a wheel of 2 m .00 diameter, fixed on a second axle, where is also fixed 
the crank-plate which, by means of a connecting rod, gives a recip¬ 
rocating motion to the striking beam. This beam is supported at a point 
about two-thirds of its whole length distant from the connecting-rod 
end. 

The two clutches mentioned serve, on one part, to throw into gear the 
pinion of 0 m .30 with the driving wheel of the drum of the capstan, and, 
on the other part, to drive the pulley of l m .50 diameter, keyed on the 
fly-wheel shaft, by which motion is given to the striking beam, at the end 
of which the boring tools are attached. 

The two brakes placed upon the fly-wheel shaft are for the purpose of 
regulating the speed of the descent of the tools, the weight of which 
might cause a great acceleration of speed, and, consequently, a fracture, 
which is always to be dreaded. 

The timber framing which forms the derrick or tower for the sinking 
of the wells is more simply arranged than that adopted by Air. Kind. 
The tools, in place of being received upon a platform about ten metres 
above the surface, are upon the surface itself, and it is, consequently, 
much more easy to work them. The linked chain for lifting the tools 
has stood the wear of ten years without any accident ; while the break¬ 
ing of the cables employed in the system of Alessrs. Kind and Chaudron 
have occasioned, as we have seen, serious accidents and delays. 

To finish the comparison of the two different methods of surface prep¬ 
arations which we are considering, we will state that at the boring of 
the wells of Passy, undertaken by Air. Kind, there were two machines 
of 25 horse-power, one of 10 horse-power working the striking beam, 
and one of 15 horse-power working the capstan drum. The trepan, at 
the shank, did not weigh more than about two tons. Messrs. Degousee 


26 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


and Cli. Laurent used an engine of only 15 liorse-power to work their 
trepan, which weighed about four tons, and to bring the broken or bored 
earth to the surface. This engine did not require any repairs, except 
such as are ordinarily necessary during a service of two years. 

BORING TOOLS OF DEGOUSEE AND LAURENT. 

We will now consider the boring tools devised by Messrs. Degousde 
and Cli. Laurent. 

The construction of the trepan employed at the artesian well of La 
Chapelle differs completely from that of Mr. Kind. It is represented by 
Figs. 21 and 22, Plate I. It is composed of six branches, so arranged as 
to break up the earth in an annular belt or zone, leaving a central core. 
The six teeth which are keyed into the blade-holder are 0 m .35 wide, and 
the mode of fixing them into the six branches is so secure and solid that, 
up to this date, no accident has happened. Even when a tooth becomes 
unkeyed it cannot get out of the blade-holder, while at the shaft of the 
Hopital there have been twenty-three teeth out of their sockets, all of 
which fell into the shaft. One of these accidents caused a stoppage of 
a month. 

The percussion of the trepan with the regular rotating movement cuts 
out an annular channel of 0 m .45 to 0 m .50 large, leaving in the center 
of the shaft an unworked piece of earth, or core, of 0 m .80 or 0 m .90 
diameter. This mass, when in slightly coherent earth, crumbles down 
and forms an irregular cone. In this case they bolt on one diameter a 
transverse blade, which triturates the core. 

This trepan weighs about four tons. Its first cost is greater than that 
of Mr. Kind’s, but it proves in practice to be much more solid and dura¬ 
ble, and it works better. 

Messrs. Degousee and Cli. Laurent have been very successful in giv¬ 
ing a free bill or drop to their trepan. With more than ten thousand 
blows, the trepan has not once failed to be caught again upon the descent 
of the rods, and its fall has always worked with the greatest regularity, 
while at the shaft of the Hopital eighteen fractures of pieces of the slide 
have occasioned a stoppage of more than a month. The contrivance for 
the free fall of the trepan is constructed as follows: A movable piece 
surrounds the shaft above the hooks and terminates in a fork, of which 
the two branches extend below the cutters and touch the bottom of the 
bore. This piece is not lifted, unless the borer is raised more than the 
stroke allowed by the collar which attaches around the hooks. The upper 
part of the hooks lifted by the boring rod slides, therefore, in the collar, 
and, meeting a striker which makes them open, the tool immediately 
falls with all its weight on the bottom of the bore. The boring rod, being 
lowered, catches the tool again by the hooks, and this action is repeated 
so as to obtain a succession of blows. The figures show the arrangement 
of the fixed shaft and the hooks for the drop. 

The suspension rods employed by Messrs. Degousee and Cli. Lau- 


MINING—BORING ARTESIAN WELLS. 


27 


rent are of iron. They have a section of 0 m .045 square, and are 12 m .00 
long. These rods have worked for two years without accident, and 
we prefer them to those made of wood, for the following reasons: 
It is evident that wood at a great depth will take from the pressure of 
the water a density at least equal to that of the water $ and, moreover, 
the iron fittings add to the weight in a certain proportion; and if we 
compare the sections of the shafts or wooden rods of the wells at the 
Hopital to those of iron at the wells of La Chapelle, it is seen that the 
metre in length of the first weighs at least 35 kilogrammes, (70 pounds,) 
while that of the second does not exceed 10 kilogrammes, (32 pounds.) 
It is true that as the wooden rods displace a greater quantity of water 
their weight is diminished, hut this small advantage is largely over¬ 
balanced by their rapid deterioration, whether in store or at work. The 
wood in drying heats and loses its qualities. Well made, their construc¬ 
tion appears to us sufficiently costly to make the matter of renewing 
them at each sinking rather an important item ; they augment sensibly 
the cost of work to be done. On the other hand, the iron shafts that 
can be balanced as practiced by Messrs. Degousee and Laurent require 
for their descent and elevation but a little more force, and with steam- 
engines this increase of expense is so little that it may be disregarded. 

The draining and cleaning tools of the wells at La Chapelle differ 
equally from those of Mr. Kind; and we think them also superior. The 
modification of the trepan intended to work out the annular groove or 
zone led to a modification of the auger, which is annular and composed 
of nine augers joined together, of 0 m .35 diameter. 

The spoon or bucket which lifts the detritus in the middle of the wells 
is a cylinder l m .00 in diameter and 2^.50 in height. The bottom, in 
place of carrying two valves, is pierced with seven round holes, which 
are closed by hemispherical hollow valves carrying in their axis a shaft 
which traverses the whole length of the spoon. This shaft is terminated 
by a handle which permits the workmen to lift up the valve in order to 
empty out the mud when the bucket is withdrawn from the well. This 
arrangement is intended to obviate the inconvenience of the hinged 
valves, which often, by not completely closing, let the matter in the 
bucket escape during the ascent of the dredge. 

The bucket at La Chapelle is emptied with great ease, it being lifted 
one metre above the surface and placed on a little truck, which carries 
it immediately under a crane placed at the side where the contents are 
to be emptied. 

The recovering tools are composed simply of the ordinary screw bell, 
(cloche a vis,) a grapnel, and a new form of pincers, with four branches. 
These four branches are arranged in a parallelogram, and one of their 
ends is fixed to a single piece bored and tapped in its center. It is easy 
to understand the part this plays: in raising or lowering the nut in the 
screw which is attached to the boring rods, the four branches expand or 
contract at will, which, resting on the bottom of the well, gather the 



28 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


objects which may bo there. The working of this apparatus is very 
simple. It is sufficient, when the pincers have arrived at their destina¬ 
tion, to turn the boring rods, and when the piece they wish to catch is 
taken and caught, it produces a resistance which indicates that there is 
nothing more to do than to lift the whole apparatus to the surface. 
Every time this apparatus has been tried it has given the results 
expected. 

TUBBING. 


The artesian well of La Chapelle traverses the Tertiary strata of the 
Paris basin, and penetrates the chalks and marls of the Secondary. 

According to the agreement between the contractors and the city, the 
boring is expected to be 000 metres deep before it reaches the water¬ 
bearing bed of the greensand formation. After working two years, the 
well has already (1867) reached a depth of 337 metres, but it has been 
found necessary to tub or line the shaft to avoid the caving which would 
inevitably happen without it. 

A first column of sheet-iron lining, l m .S0 diameter, 34 m .50 high, and 
weighing about thirty-six tons, was put in immediately below the pre¬ 
paratory pit, which last was lined with masonry to a distance of about 
six metres below the surface, where the working platform was placed. 

A second column, l m .70 diameter, 135 metres high, and weighing 11 
tons, was next put in ; and lastly, a third column was put down just to 
the chalk. This column has a height of 139 metres, its diameter l m .37, 
and its weight about 110 tons. 

The tubes are made of sheet iron of a mean thickness of 0 m .02; 
the height of each section being determined by the breadth of the iron 
plates. These plates were fastened together by rivets with countersunk 
heads, so that the interior and exterior surface of the lining were quite 
smooth. 

To form one of these cylinders, two sheets of iron of the thickness 
ot 0 m .01 are taken and riveted together in such manner that one of 
them, the inner one for example, projects slightly beyond the other, and 
thus forms a shoulder to which the next section above can be riveted. 
By this arrangement it will be seen that each column of tubbing pre¬ 
sented the same diameter throughout its length. When the sections of 
the column are thus prepared, they are lowered and put together as they 
descend into the well. 


This operation is performed in the following manner: 

A wooden frame is made and supported upon a wheeled truck. This 
frame is composed of two strong vertical walls of a height of four or five 
metres, connected at their upper part by a cap or top, to which four nuts 


are fixed to receive four screws intended to sustain the pipe in its descent. 
Each of these screws is worked by two men by means of a crank and 
conical pinion conveniently arranged. Plate 1, Fig. 7. 

The lower part of these four screws is fixed to a strong circular wooden 


MINING—BORING ARTESIAN WELLS. 29 

plate, about 0 m .50 thick, and equal in diameter to the inner diameter 
of the column that is to be lowered. 

Upon the working platform a species of tubbing in wood is placed, the 
interior diameter of which is equal to the exterior of the iron tubbing or 
pipe. The height of this tubbing is two metres; the segments of which it 
is composed are united together, and can be drawn together or expanded 
by means of screws, so as to squeeze the column and act as a clamp or 
support during its descent. When this kind of tubbing is put in place, 
and the frame which carries the screws is put in the axis of the well, the 
first section of pipe is brought forward and placed over the well. Pre¬ 
viously several iron ears are bolted upon the interior face of the tub, and 
about a metre below its upper edge, the use of which will be presently 
explained. Other projecting ears are fixed in the inside of the tub, and 
on these ears the lower part of the wooden plate is allowed to rest, and 
is then bolted to them. When the work is thus prepared, this first tub 
is lowered until the outer ears rest upon the upper edge of the wooden 
tubbing which surrounds the column on the outside. The inside ears 
are then removed and the pipe is supported upon the outer tub. The 
inner plate of wood is then lifted up by the aid of the screws, and the 
rivet holes of the ears are closed up by hot rivets with countersunk 
heads. The second cylinder is then placed in the axis of the well. This 
second cylinder has inside and outside ears like the first, and the circu- 
lar plate is introduced and bolted to the ears. These hold it at its upper 
part, and it is then lowered regularly, with the aid of the screws, until 
the lower part fits into the first cylinder. The two sections are then riv¬ 
eted together by hot rivets. The tub is then lifted a little in order to 
remove the outside ears of the first section of the cylinder, and the whole 
is allowed to descend by its own weight till the outer ears of the top 
cylinder rest in their turn upon the upper part of the wooden tubbing. 
They proceed in the same way for all the other sections of the column or 
tubbing of the well until it is finished. 

The lowering screws are each calculated to withstand a strain of fifty 
tons j but to prevent a too rapid descent of the lining when it has attained 
a considerable weight, Messrs. Degousee and Ch. Laurent make use of the 
species of tubbing upon the surface of the working pits already noticed. 
This tubbing not only serves to guide the column and to make it descend 
vertically, but also, and above all, to act as a powerful break, and thus 
enable the workmen to control the velocity of the descent at will. 

Tightening the segment screws gives a strong compression and fric¬ 
tion over a height of two metres, sufficient to control the descent of the 
tubbing. 

The three columns of sheet-iron lining which have been mentioned 
were put in place by this system of operating with the greatest ease, at 
the rate of four metres a day, including the time spent in riveting the 
sections of the tubbing. 

When the artesian well of La Chapelle is sunk to the depth of COO 


30 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


metres, a tub in one column will be lowered to the same depth. Messrs. 
Degousee and Ch. Laurent propose to employ the same method of lower¬ 
ing, and there is no doubt that these able engineers will succeed com¬ 
pletely in this magnificent work. 

The false bottom for the tubbing, which is used by Messrs. Kind and 
Chaudron, would not answer in this case, because it would prevent the 
water from rising in the well. The work carried forward at La Chapelle 
proves that by the system a niveau plein , of sinking from the surface, 
large shafts for mines can be executed by the tools and method of 
Messrs. Degousee and Ch. Laurent with great success in similar forma¬ 
tions. 

TREPAN WITH FREE FALL. 

There remains little to be said of the ordinary boring tools shown by 
this house, all are known; we will give only some details of the tool with 
free fall and on the bayonet principle, and of those tools for verifying 
the nature and the inclination of the strata. 

The trepan with slides working the free fall is provided internally 
with two bulges, which force the palls to open and to abandon the head 
which forms the upper part of the slide screw ed to the great shaft which 
carries the trepan. The height of the fall depends on the distance which 
exists between the pincers and the head of the disengager at the time 
wiien the trepans of the little additional shaft are both upon the bottom. 
Every time that it is washed to alter this fall, it is sufficient to divide the 
lower part of the additional shaft, and to replace it by a longer or 
shorter one. 

The first instrument for taking a sample of the strata is called the 
decoupcur. It is made with a head terminated by four vertical branches 
carrying at their ends four chisels. The four branches are strength¬ 
ened together between two concentric pieces of sheet-iron, and riveted. 
Any length can be given to these branches. This tool is used by per¬ 
cussion, like the trepan. 

The core once formed, they lower a punch. It is composed of a pipe 
fastened throughout its entire height to a fork, one of the branches of 
which receives a flat band of iron the same length as itself. 

A wedge is intended to work between the band of iron and the band 
of the fork; the first is furnished with three pins riveted to the pipe; 
the iron band is pierced w ith three holes intended to receive, without 
being fixed thereto, the ends of these pins. 

The punch is lowered into the well, the wedge being placed as low as 
the slide w ill admit of. At the moment that the instrument is about 
0 m .10 or 0 ra .15 from the bottom, the rod is left to fall; the shock makes 
the wedge enter between the two branches, which open, and presenting 
a thickness greater than that of the annular space produced by Je 
dccoupeur. A horizontal thrust is thus created which throws the iron 
pipes on one side, and consequently the cylinder of earth which it envel- 


MINING-BORING ARTESIAN WELLS. 31 

opes is detached from the bottom of the shaft and remains caught in the 
instrument by the springs. 

Messrs. Dm Brothers, successors to Messrs. Mulot, also exhibited a 
complete series of boring tools, among them a model of a trepan which 
they employ for the boring at the Butte-aux-Gailles. 

This trepan, (Fig. 23, Plate I.) is a lamepleine, (full blade.) The teeth 
are let into the blade their full size, and are maintained in their sockets 
by bolts. This arrangement holds them more solidly than keys, and 
allows of their being tightened when they get loose. 

To obtain a free drop of the trepan, these engineers usually employ a 
mechanism which opens the hooks by the shock of the working beam 
striking against a fixed point. 

For the large shaft they have replaced this apparatus by another. 
When in boring the rod has arrived at its greatest height by the upward 
movement of the working beam, the tool does not fall, but is unhooked 
when the rod descends. This is effected by the action of a cleat which 
bears against the side of the hook and opens it; the tool then falls to 
the bottom of the shaft and is followed slowly by the boring rod, which 
almost immediately re-seizes the tool. Mr. Dru thinks that he has ob¬ 
tained by this arrangement for the simultaneous descent of the tool and 
the boring rod the most favorable condition for the preservation of the 
working parts, and for the regularity of the sinking. 


CHAPTER II. 


DRILLING ENGINES, AND COAL-CUTTING MA¬ 
CHINES. 


Machines for boring or drilling by percussion—Trouillet’s Excavator- 

Drilling MACHINES ACTUATED BY STEAM OR COMPRESSED AIR—SoMMEII.IER’S DRILL¬ 
ING ENGINE—Do RING’S DRILL—BeRGSTROEM’S DRILL—HaUPT’S DRILL—BEAUMONT 

AND LOCOCK’S DRILLING ENGINE—DRILLING BY ROTATION OF THE TOOLS—LlSBET 

and Jacquet’s borer—Lesciiot’s drill—De La Rociie-Tollay and Perrett’s 

BORING APPARATUS—MACHINES FOR CUTTING OUT COAL. 

The application of machinery, worked by steam or other power, to the 
drilling or perforation of rocks originated in the United States. Before 
the year 1853 several such machines were at work in North America. 
Some served to perforate the rock by means of drills worked by percus¬ 
sion, and were employed simultaneously with powder; others, applied to 
the driving of underground galleries, acted directly to cut and break 
down the whole of the rock of the size of the gallery, and were not in¬ 
tended to prepare the rock for subsequent use of powder. Messrs. Tal¬ 
bot and Wilson had invented one of these machines, which drove a gal- 
lery of5 m .20 diameter by the aid of cutting disks fixed to the arms of a 
kind of wheel turning on a central axis. These disks, in turning on 
their axes, scooped like a plane at the same time that they were carried 
around by the rotary motion of the central axis. They formed an annu¬ 
lar groove or channel, leaving in the center of the gallery a core of solid 
ground. This machine had a certain amount of success in the talcose 
schists, where the core could be easily broken off. The speed of working 
was l m .23 (4.04 feet) for twelve hours of work. The expense was estimated 
at 100 francs per running metre, but it is evident that in hard rocks this 
machine could not compete with those which only drilled the holes or cham¬ 
bers for the reception of powder, by which the rocks could be blown out 
much cheaper than* they could be cut away. 

Other machines were constructed so as to cut away only a small part 
of the rock, isolating it by deep grooves or channels into large blocks, 
which were then broken up either with levers or by powder. 

All these machines were worked by steam, and their mode of action 
was sometimes that of the common drill of the miner, sometimes that of 
a cutting tool, but in neither of these machines had the idea of boring 
like an auger into wood, or a drill into iron, been applied. 

For some years this last-mentioned mode of boring had been employed 
in France with better results than those of other machines which had 
preceded them. 

Perforators, or rock-drilling machines, can be divided, according to 
their mode of working, into two principal systems—percussion and 
rotary. 


MINING-BORING AND DRILLING. 


33 


The different machines of the two systems which were shown at the 
Exposition, or which have been employed in driving large tunnels, 
will now be noticed. 

I.—MACHINES FOE BORING BY PERCUSSION. 

The apparatus for boring by percussion can be divided into two classes— 
the first, those that are worked by manual labor; the second, those which 
use compressed air or steam as the motive power. Only one apparatus, 
the cavatcur Trouillct , is comprised in the first class. 

TROUILLE'FS EXCAVATOR. 

_ \ 

This apparatus, invented by Mr. Trouillet, is intended to scoop out 

the rock at the bottom of the drill holes in mines, so as to give a cham¬ 
ber for the reception of a larger quantity of powder than the drill hole 
would contain. It can also be used to enlarge a round hole throughout 
its whole length, beginning the work at the bottom. 1 

The principal parts of this apparatus are— 

1. An iron bar or stem d, projecting 0 m .80 beyond the tube A*. This 
stem is provided with a pair of cutters e e, (Fig. 1, Plate II,) fixed to¬ 
gether by hinges, which allow each to describe a quarter of a circle. 
The pin g, upon which they are hinged, is kept in place by the side of 
the tube ft. There is, however, but a small amount of pressure on this 
pin, for the tools are so arranged as to receive the shock due to the per¬ 
cussion directly. The lower part of the stem is made of steel. 

2. A pair of tools or cutters ee, (Fig. 1,) in steel, destined to attack 
the rock by the movement they receive from the stem, worked like the 
ordinary mining bar. For convenience of working, Mr. Trouillet has 
made a series of tools, composed of four pairs of different sizes. 

3. A tightening piece composed of two pieces, united by nuts, and 
intended to fix the tube at the required height. This piece rests by its 
lower extremity on the top of a long hollow screw which, by working in 
a nut in the top of a standard, enables the operator to change the height 
of the tool. The hollow screw is made of bronze, or brass, and the nut 
is of cast iron. 

4. A tube A*, (Fig. 1,) for guiding the stem. This is a little longer 
than the depth at which it is required to enlarge the hole. The lower 
part of this tube is closed by a piece of iron solidly riveted. Two steel 
anvils rest upon this piece, (see Fig. 2,) and the width of each anvil is 
equal to that of the steel tools, which, by striking the anvils, are sud¬ 
denly thrown apart. These anvils are only fixed by a rivet, which can 
be drawn out when the anvils ought to be renewed. They are arranged 
so that the tools or cutters striking them can be extracted from the inside 
of the tube by an opening left for that purpose. 

l An apparatus similar to this was made in San Francisco, California, a lew years 
since. The cutters were adapted to hand-drills alone.—W. P. R. 

3 M 







34 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


In working with this machine two workmen give to tlie stem d a, ver¬ 
tical movement, like an ordinary jumper, causing the cutters ce to 
strike against the sides of the rock. Another workman turns the whole 
machine by means of handles. In this manner the cutters are made to 
strike successively all the parts of the cavity to be hollowed out, and 
follow a series of heliacal lines. When the screw has arrived at the end 
of its stroke the operation commences again in the contrary direction, 
and soon until the cutters have arrived at their maximum of expansion. 
This will be known by the collar of the stem coming in contact with the 
tube. The tools are then changed for larger ones, until the cavity has 
been sufficiently enlarged $ the largest tools can produce a chamber with 
a diameter of 0 m .30. 

Mr. Trouillet states that, beginning with the little tool, the jumper 
ought to strike twenty blows for one turn of the screw, while in using 
the largest it ought to make seventy blows. He also says that a chamber 
of 0 m .30 by 0 m .50 in height, holding 35 kilogrammes of powder, requires 
fifty hours’ work in rock of ordinary hardness. 

The price of this percussion apparatus complete, to work up to three 
metres of height, is 050 francs, delivered in Paris. Inspection alone of the 
machine shows that it is only applicable to rocks of a certain hardness. 
It has been employed with success in some sea-ports, where a series of 
holes in line have been fired with the electric wire. The lifting of the 
debris is made by a scoop, shaped like an Arcliimedian screw. 

BORING BY STEAM OR COMPRESSED AIR. 

The boring machines of the second class, actuated by steam or com¬ 
pressed air, are divided into two systems, according to their mode of 
working. 

The first includes the apparatus which serve to make the holes to be 
blasted with powder. The second comprises the machines intended to 
cut out the rock the size of the gallery by direct action, unaided by 
powder. 

The best known power machines for boring blasting holes are— 

1. Those of Mr. Sommeilier, employed at Mont Cenis. 

2. The apparatus of Mr. Boring, of Prussia, employed for the last three 
years at the Vieille Montague mine. 

3. The borer of Mr. Bergstroem, of Sweden. 

4. And lastly, the steam-borer of Mr. Herman Haupt, G. E., of Phila¬ 
delphia, United States. 

BORER OF MR. SOMMEILIER. 

Before undertaking the description of this machine, which has produced 
such a sensation among engineers, we will give a few words upon the 
machines which give motion to the striker. These machines are com¬ 
posed of air-compressors and iron pipes to carry the compressed air to 
the boring apparatus. 


MINING-BONING AND DRILLING. 


35 


On tlie Italian side of the Alps, at Bardonneehe, (the Piedmont en¬ 
trance,) the air-compressors are a kind of hydraulic ram, the valves of 
which are arranged in such a way that at each lift of the valve admitting 
water a certain quantity of air, at a pressure of five atmospheres, is forced 
into a reservoir ten metres long and seventeen cubic metres capacity. 

The air-compressors at Modena (north side) are composed of a hori¬ 
zontal cylinder full of water, in which a piston works, and of two vertical 
cylinders receiving the air and provided with valves in their upper part. 
By the motion of the piston a quantity of air, equal to that of the water 
displaced by the movement, is introduced and expelled at each stroke. 
The air is conducted to the boring machine by cast-iron pipes of 0 m .20. 
It has been ascertained that the loss due to friction is about one-tenth 
of an atmosphere. 

The boring machines of Mr. Sommeilier (Figs. G, 7, 8, Plate II) are 
essentially composed of a cylinder II, in which the compressed air works. 
The piston-rod traverses the heads of this cylinder, and carries on one 
side a screw which commands the distributor. A machine I, similar to 
a steam-engine, commands the slide-valve of this distributor. This ar¬ 
rangement was adopted inasmuch as the stroke of the piston which car¬ 
ries the drill varies with the hardness of the rock and the position of the 
drill in the hole, and no reliance could be placed upon the introduction 
of the compressed air by means of the percussion alone. 

The whole apparatus weighs 200 kilogrammes. It rests upon two 
beds 0 m .03 wide by 0 m .05 high, and 0 m .09 apart. Their length is 2 m .70. 
They are cut upon their inside faces in the form of a nut, in which the 
screw Y moves, (Figs. G, 7,) and the edge of their lower faces is formed 
like a rack. 

The cylinder of the distributing machine is 0 m .0G in diameter. The 
stroke of the piston is 0 ra .10; it is furnished with a connecting rod and 
a crank, and by means of gearing gives a rotary movement to a square 
stem T, (Fig. 7,) upon which is fixed, first, a pall D, which advances 
tooth by tooth the ratchet-wheel B, provided with sixteen teeth, and fixed 
invariably on the prolongation of the piston-rod in such manner that 
after sixteen blows of the drill, the ratchet, the piston, and the drill have 
made a complete revolution; second, a plate furnished with a cam 0, which 
moves the slide-rod t, and if we suppose that the slide-valve pushed by 
this cam advances and stops the aperture for admission, the air which 
acts escapes through the opening which communicates with the atmo¬ 
sphere by the hollow passage in the slide-valve, and the piston is carried 
to its original position by the constant pressure which is exerted on its 
front face. At this instant the valve abandoned by the cam 0 is pushed 
back suddenly to its initial position by the difference of pressure which 
is exerted upon the two faces, and thus opens the inlet port. 

The diameter of the piston of the boring machine is 0 m .06, its stroke 
0 m .20, and it gives 200 blows per minute. This machine is single-acting. 
The compressed air enters by the opening in constant communication by 


3 G 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


the conduit with the front part of the cylinder; when the piston is at 
the end of its stroke the slide opens the inlet port, and the piston only 
advances in consequence of the difference of the pressure of air on its 
hack lace fitted with a slender rod, and on its internal face, of which the 
section is reduced by the large shaft of the tool carrier. The impul¬ 
sive force upon the piston is for some of these machines 05 kilo¬ 
grammes, and for others 150 kilogrammes. 

We have before explained how the drill is made to rotate; it remains 
to show how it is made to advance, and how it can be rapidly taken out in 
case of need. If the screw Y, constantly geared into its nut formed by 
the internal filleted faces of the beds, were fixed permanently upon the 
shaft T', it would follow that in each rotation of the drill it would 
advance the cylinder by a length equal to its pitch ; but it should, on the 
contrary, only advance at the same speed that the drill enters the rock, 
therefore the screw V works loosely upon the shaft, and only turns when 
the clutch-box M catches it, this clutch being continually pushed by the 
action of a spiral spring N, which is retained by the rod F, the use of 
which will be explained, (Fig. 7.) 

The rod F connected with the clutch carries at its front extremity— 

1. A fork, the teeth of which rest against those of a rack on the 
lower part of the bed plate. 

2. A prolongation Q, terminated by a semicircular appendage. 

If we now suppose that the piston is reaching the end of its stroke, 
with the drill scarcely touching the bottom of the hole, the tappet P 
fixed upon the shaft of the tool-carrier (Fig. 6) strikes the appendage Q, 
forces it to drop, and detaches the tooth S from the rack. Then the 
clutch-box M, impelled by the spring N, catches and turns the screw Y. 
The striking cylinder advances till the fork S is caught by the following 
tooth of the rack, and thus disengages the clutch. 

It may be granted that Mr. Sommeilier has constructed an ingenious 
machine, which fulfills the following conditions: 

1. It strikes hard and rapid blows upon the rock. 

2. It transmits a self-acting rotary motion to the drill, required to 
prevent it from becoming fixed in the hole. 

3. It imparts also a progressive, self-acting, and regular advance to 
the drill as the hole deepens in working. 

4. And lastly, it can be rapidly drawn back to change the tools. 

The tool is a drill, with the cutting edge in the form of aZ; it makes 
a hole of 0 m .09 and 0 m .04, but in the first case it is furnished for 0 m .20 
behind its head with a bulge which trims or reams the holes to full size. 
The stroke of the machine is but 0 m .80, but it can make a hole to a depth 
of 0 m .90 by reason of the length of the drills, which vary from 0 m .50 to 
2 m .00. 

Let us now inquire if this apparatus has answered the expectations of 
its author, and if this system of percussion will really render the service 
expected from it. We do not hesitate to express the opinion that it has 


MINING-BORING AND DRILLING. 


37 


not, and the following data will, we think, prove beyond a doubt that a 
percussion machine is not the one that should be employed in this kind 
of work. 

The apparatus placed before the breast of the gallery to be attacked 
carries 8 drills, which cover a section 4 metres wide by 3 metres high, 
equal to an area of 12 square metres. Eighty holes are bored, 0 of 0 m .09 
and 74 of 0 m .04 diameter, and 0 m .90 deep. The daily work has varied 
evidently according to the hardness of the rock; in March, 1803, it was 
l m .10 in twenty-four hours, in April l m .40, and in some parts of the 
strata even 2 m .50; but when the bank of quartz was met, (which was 
308 metres thick,) the advance was hardly 0 1B .o0 per day. 

During the month of March, 1863, it was shown that each explosion 
of 0 m .70 to 0 m .80 required six hours for boring the holes, and four hours 
for the miners carrying away the rubbish. 

The staff employed for the boring of the holes during twenty-four 
hours was as follows: 


Men. 

Two shifts. 10 

Miners. 2 

Laborers for taking away the debris. 8 

Superintendents .. 2 


Total... 28 

Although we have not to take into account the motive engines, we 
ought to add that the compressors required. 9 

Total. 37 


If we examine the staff employed in repairing the tools, we remark 
that in 1803, for 8 machines working, there were 60 in the shop- At this 
time, when the work is carried on both from the French and the Italian 
sides, the number of engines working is 16, and of those in the work¬ 
shops repairing 200- 

In 1863, as we have stated, for repairing 8 perforators working in a 
coarse sandstone, (gres a gros grains ,) the staff attached to the workshops 
was composed of— 

Men. 

Blacksmiths repairing tools and parts of machines. 14 

Fitters, turners, firemen, and boiler-makers. 19 

Total. 24 


Thus 24 men were occupied daily in repairing 8 machines- At this time 
the number is much larger; unfortunately it is almost impossible to ob¬ 
tain exact accounts of the cost of repairing. All that we know to he 
exact is that at this time the work has been offered to a company at 
(6,000 francs per running metre, giving them all the apparatus; they to 












38 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


repair the tools and clear away the dirt. This was refused, although 
the price was equal to 500 francs per cubic metre. 

The enormous shocks which the machine was subjected to obliged 
them to change the iron beds for Krupp steel ones; the springs often 
broke, and the drills cannot advance 0 m .20 or 0 m .30 without requiring 
repairs. 

Even admitting the possibility of constructing these machines strong 
enough to resist these causes of destruction, we still say the percussion 
system presents such disadvantages that renders its adoption impossible; 
for when, by the blows of the drill, pieces of rock are broken off, and 
instead of being thrown out they are still subjected to the blows and re¬ 
duced to powder, this causes a loss of work. It is true that, to aid in 
clearing the holes at Mont Cenis, they injected water under a pressure 
of live atmospheres, but this was abandoned because the tool became 
clogged. At this time a jet of air at live atmospheres is forced in and 
drives the dust from the bottom of the hole. This dusty atmosphere 
must be injurious to the health of the workmen. 

Besides, when the drill has penetrated the rock a short distance, it is 
no longer guided and supported, and its vibrations are so considerable 
that they can only be compared to those of the axles of railway wheels. 
These vibrations evidently prevent the making of a uniformly circular 
hole, and leave ridges in the hole, which prevents the use of cartridges, 
which are much better than to ram in powder. 

We ought, lastly, to add that the boring of the holes is but a part of 
the work to be done; there still remains the work of clearing out and 
removing the dirt and debris. It is necessary that the boring machine 
should be solid enough to require little repair, so that the cost for tools 
shall not be altogether out of proportion to the work done. 

BORING’S BORER. 


This apparatus is worked by compressed air, and is composed of a 
cylinder 0 m .400 in diameter, and 0 m .300 long, (Fig. 10, Plate II.) In this 
cylinder a piston moves, to which is fixed the stem of the drill. The 
compressed air is distributed by means of a slide-valve, and, after acting 
freely, escapes into the air. Two ratchet-wheels, furnished with dogs, 
are placed at the back of the cylinder, and are put in action by the pro¬ 
longed rod of the piston by means of a fork which commands the dogs. 
One of the ratchet-wheels serves to give to the drill a rotary movement 
on its axis; the other ratchet, which is*nearest to the cylinder, is equally 
commanded by the forks joined to the prolongation of the stem of this 
latter. This ratchet, by means of a toothed wheel with which it is con¬ 
nected, drives a gearing which advances the tool upon the screwed stem, 
which forms one of the supports. The arrangement of the tool is such 
that the drill only advances when the piston has run its stroke, a plan 
which we think is very defective. It is evident that the advance of the 
tool ought not to depend upon the stroke of the piston, but upon the 
hardness of the rock, as in Mr. Sommeilier’s machine. 


MINING— BORING AND DRILLING. 


39 


This apparatus of Boring weighs forty-five kilogrammes, and consti¬ 
tutes the borer, properly so called. It is erected upon a special carriage, 
which allows any direction to be given to the drill that is desired. The 
pressure of the air varies from f of an atmosphere to 1J. This machine 
has been employed for some few years at Moresnet, at La Vieille Mon¬ 
tague. The following information has been given to us by the chief en¬ 
gineer of this company. 

The rock is a quartzose and porous dolomite. A six horse-power engine 
is required to work two machines; the air is compressed to 1J atmo¬ 
spheres. For one working machine it requires two in reserve. The speed 
per minute is 0 m .03, including replacing the drills. Each drill will not 
bore more than 0 m .20 to 0 m .30 without being replaced. Its speed of ad¬ 
vance at Vieille Montague over ordinary borers has been treble in hard 
rock, but only double in soft rock. 

With such results one may ask what is the real advantage of such an 
instrument which, wdth a force of three horse power, does only three 
times or tw ice the work of a man ? 


We ought to add to these explanations that we assisted at experiments 
made at the Universal Exposition. The granite rock chosen for the 
trials was of ordinary density, and perfectly homogeneous. Nevertheless 
the tool underwent heavy shocks, although the pressure of the air did 
not exceed 1J atmospheres. The rate of speed was from 0 ra .03 to 0 m .055 
per minute; we ought also to add that the machine, valued at about 350 
francs, required several days’ repairing, valued at nearly 500 francs. 

We are convinced that this apparatus would not stand one instant the 
shock produced by attacking quartz and flint under a pressure of five at¬ 
mospheres. The cutting edge of the drills employed is about the same as 
those at Mont Cents. The diameters of the holes are of 0 m .025 and 0 m .030. 


BERGSTROEM’S PERFORATOR. 


This borer, of which w r e can only give a very brief notice, because we 
did not see it at work at the Exposition, although efforts were made for 
that purpose, is operated by compressed air, but has the disadvantage 
over the preceding ones of not having a self-acting advance movement. 
The workman gives this movement by hand as required. It is repre¬ 
sented by Figs. 11 and 12, Plate II. A A is a slide in two cylindrical 
parts, united with the rod a, moved by means of the fly-wheel V by the 
connecting rods S S. II, wedge, driven by the screw D, furnished with a 
fly C, allows of closing more or less the escape-valve E, so as to offer a 
varying resistance to the motion which it receives from the tappets //. 
The escape takes place freely into the air by the opening in the upper 
part of the slide-valve chest. G, cylinder, in which moves the piston H, 
0 m .014 diameter, with a stroke of 0 m .208. I, iron rod, forged wdth the 
piston, and provided wdth a socket K to receive the drill. This rod is 
hollowed, and in its interior there is another cylindrical rod L, attached 
to the body of the piston by the keys M. Upon this rod is fixed a worm- 


40 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


wheel N, gearing into an endless screw P, fixed upon the fly-wheel 
shaft r. It follows from this arrangement that in giving motion to the 
fly-wheel, motion is imparted on the one hand to the piston a a, in order 
that the air admitted on one face of the piston H may cause it to advance, 
and on the other hand the endless screw imparts its movement to the 
gearing 1ST—that is, to the piston itself, and, consequently, to the drill; 
and in continuing the movement of rotation, the admission of air takes 
place at the opposite face of the piston, and the air on the other side 
escapes into the gallery, and so on. 

The forward movement is effected in the following manner: The whole 
arrangement is borne upon a piece T, fixed to the roof, or the walls, of 
the gallery, which carries a rack on one side in which a wheel, attached 
to the borer, works so that the apparatus may be raised or lowered. 

This apparatus weighs 65 kilogrammes; the price is 550 francs. 

It works with air compressed to one atmosphere. It gives 300 to 
400 blows per minute. The diameter of the drills varies from 0 m .018 to 
0 m .025. 

This apparatus requires power to compress the air, and a regulating 
reservoir. The force of the engine required varies from four to five 
horsepower. 

We think that this apparatus has imperfections similar to those that 
we have previously pointed out; nevertheless its construction appears 
to be such that it can resist the blows in working. 

HAUPT’S DRILL. 

This percussion borer differs essentially in its construction from those 
described. It works by means of steam. The drill passes down a hollow 
piston rod, to which it is fixed by the extremity which is before the 
workman.—(See Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 5, Plate II.) The reciprocating move¬ 
ment is communicated directly to the drill, and by a special arrangement 
of the slide-valve the introduction of the steam into the cylinder is avoided 
until the piston has arrived at the end of its forward stroke. 

The force of the blow of the drill upon the rock evidently depends on 
the pressure of the steam upon the piston. It will be observed, besides, 
that the useful effect of the drill depends much more upon the section of 
the piston and the pressure of the steam, than on the length of the stroke 
of the piston, and that the consumption is proportioned to this last di¬ 
mension. The length of the stroke of the piston is 0 m .102, and the num¬ 
ber of blows per minute is 375. 

The movement of rotation is given to the drill in the following way: 
The box in which the shaft of the drill is held, and which turns with it, 
carries a ratchet-wheel on one part of its circumference, and around this 
wheel is a ring furnished with a pall, which catches in the teeth of the 
ratchet-wheel. This ring also carries a projecting tappet, which passes 
in an inclined groove left in the outer envelope of sheet-iron which sur¬ 
rounds the steam-cylinder. The tappet participates in the movement of 


MINING—BORING AND DRILLING. 


41 


tin 1 piston and drill, and by sliding in tlie inclined groove turns a screw 
vitli which it is combined, and by means of the pall gives the ratchet- 
wheel and the drill a rotary motion. 

This arrangement would be insufficient alone, since the tappet moving 
in both directions in the groove destroys, to a certain extent, during the 
forward stroke, the useful effect produced during the back stroke. To 
obviate this imperfection, and to maintain the rotation transmitted to 
the drill, there is a second ratchet-wheel placed at the front end of the 
box that carries the drill. A steel spindle placed in a recess formed by 
the cylinder jacket locks into the teeth ot this second ratchet-wheel, so 
that the movement of rotation only takes place one way. The first 
ratchet-wheel allows the transmission of the rotating movement to the 
tool 5 the second forces this movement to be always effected one way. 

Mr. Haupt has contrived a special arrangement which causes the drill 
to always strike upon the rock with the same force, and to vary its ad¬ 
vance according to the hardness of the rock. If the drill is put into the 
drill-carrier in such manner that at any given time the motion ot this 
latter can be suddenly arrested while the tool itself continues to move, 
it is clear that each stoppage of the tool-carrier will be followed by an 
advance of the tool; but as this stoppage would diminish the force of 
the blow upon the bottom of the hole, it is only allowed to take place at 
intervals. 

Mr. Haupt estimates that tliree-horse power is required for each 
borer, and that the rate of progress in rocks of ordinary hardness is 
0 m .05 per minute. 

BEAUMONT AND LOCOCK’S DRILLING ENGINE. 

This machine is worked by compressed air; its object is to pierce a 
gallery of two metres diameter entirely by the machine, aided by powder 
for disengaging the core of rock which is left in the middle of the annu¬ 
lar trench cut by the drills. 

This machine is composed of a cast iron plate A, (Figs. 1, 2 , 3, Plate 
III,) which carries on its circumference fifty drills made of cast-steel, aa, 
and in its center a similar drill b. The diameter of the plate is about two 
metres, and is the same as that of the gallery to be driven. It is fixed on a 
hollow iron shaft B, about two-tliirds of its length being a piston, which 
moves in a cylinder C. 

The stroke of the piston is about 0 m .30. I) is the slide-valve which 
introduces the air (compressed to two atmospheres) to each face of the 
piston, and gives it an alternate movement of 250 blows per minute. A 
worm worked by a special mechanism turns the axle B, with the drills 
by means of the screw wheel B, combined with the axle. The carriage 
on which the piston shaft is mounted receives a forward motion by a 
special arrangement. The water which is thrown into the groove formed 
by the drills enters the interior of the shaft B, and by pipes branched 
upon this axle is conducted to the circumference of the plate A. 


42 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


We will not dwell longer on tlie description of this machine, which 
has seen daylight, but which, we think, will never see the end of a gal¬ 
lery in a mine or tunnel. The fifty-one working drills augment not only 
in a considerable proportion the causes of breaking that we have previ¬ 
ously pointed out; but even admitting that this machine will not destroy 
itself, the regular work that it is capable of doing would cause its rejec¬ 
tion. It is evident that, in a rock of ordinary hardness, the drills could 
not do more than 0 m .90 without being replaced once or twice; the machine 
would therefore have to be unscotched and driven back at least the 
length of the work to replace the army of drills of which it is composed, 
(this last work does not appear easy to do,) and again advance, scotch 
it, and set it at work. We have not calculated the time necessary for 
all these operations; but this we do know, that when the boring is fin¬ 
ished and it is necessary to draw back the machine for the last time out 
of the gallery to have space to take away the debris, the volume of this 
latter, broken up by the powder, would not exceed 2 m .82 cubic. It is 
evident that under such conditions the work performed would be com¬ 
paratively nothing. But it is evident that the work of the drills will be 
very irregular on account of the nature of the rock itself, and the un¬ 
equal wear of the drills; consequently a few only of the drills would 
work at a time, and these would receive all the blow of the machine; 
under these circumstances they would frequently break, necessitating, 
as we have stated, the frequent withdrawal of the machine, which 
weighs more than ten tons. 


II.—BORING BY ROTATION. 

We have before pointed out the imperfections inherent and inevitable 
in the system of boring by percussion, and however ingenious the com¬ 
bination given to the apparatus, we are convinced they are destined to 
disappear and to give way to the system of rotating borers, which will 
now be described. 

The borers by rotation are divided, like those by percussion, into two 
classes; the first comprises those worked by hand, the second those 
which require water, steam, or compressed air as the motive power. 

Among the first we remark the borer of Lisbet and Jacquet, Mr. 
Leschot’s borer, constructed by Mr. Pitet, and lastly Mr. Trouillet’s rota¬ 
ting excavator. 

BORER OF LISBET AND JACQUET. 

The tool of this borer is formed of a blade of corrugated steel 0 m .007 
thick and 0 m .035 wide, twisted like an auger bit, so that it draws from 
the hole the debris of the rock detached by the cutting end, which has 
two edges, making a very obtuse angle, like a drill for perforating metals. 
This tool offers a certain peculiarity; the drill, instead of advancing 
according to the hardness of the rock, works in the manner of a screw 
turning in a fixed nut, and is expected to penetrate at a certain rate, 


MIXING-BORING AND DRILLING. 


43 


irrespective of the hardness of the material being bored. By this ar¬ 
rangement, if the rock is too hard to be overcome by the motive power 
used, the drill either stops or breaks. The screw of the drill-carrier has 
four threads per centimetre, so that the rate of progression is 0 m .01 for 
four turns. 

The frame of the drill-carrier is ingeniously arranged, to enable it to 
be moved rapidly and to make holes in all directions. 

The support or frame for this drill consists of an upright, or standard, 
to be sustained in the drift, or gallery, by steel points at each end, one 
of which can be forced against the roof by a screw, while the other rests 
upon the floor. The body of this standard is double, and so made that 
a sliding-drill support can be raised or lowered in it, and be sustained at 
any desired height by means of pins. Motion is given to the drill by 
means of a winch and ratchet working in the usual way. 

Result of the experiments. On the 11th May, 1861, a commission 
of engineers made some experiments with this borer, and obtained the 
following results: 

First experiment—soft schist; rate of advance, 0 m .10 per minute, in¬ 
cluding fixing the tool. 

Second experiment—a little harder schist, about the same rate. 

Third experiment—sandstone, coarse grains, ordinary hardness; rate 
per minute, 0 m .023. 

Fourth experiment—same stone, 0 m .0S6 per minute. 

Fifth experiment—very hard sandstone, 0 m .018 per minute. 

These experiments only lasted 6 hours and 8J minutes for the two first, 
15 hours for the third, 5 hours and 5 minutes for the fourth, and 11 hours 
for the fifth, and the workman turning the handle exerted double the 
force of regular labor. 

Further experiments were made in October, 1861, at the pits at Car¬ 
ling, (Moselle,) giving the following results: 

First. Soft coal schist; rate, 0 m .016 per minute. 

Second. Gres houillier , compact; rate, 0 m .05 per minute. 

Third. Coarse grained, hard sandstone; rate, 0 m .035 per minute. 

These experiments showed that the advantages resulting from the em¬ 
ployment of Lisbet and Jaequet’s borer were for the second experiment in 
the proportion of 3.64 to 1, and in the third experiment 7 to 1. 

The difference of the results obtained in the third and fourth experi¬ 
ments of the lltli May, 1861, was, that in the third experiment the sand¬ 
stone was wet, and the chips and dust worked up by the tool formed a 
paste which required the tool to be often removed for cleaning, from 
which it may be concluded that the arrangement of the bit is bad for 
boring holes in wet strata. 

At Montigny-sur-Sambre, in an experiment in ironstone, the following 
results were obtained: 

A hole in compact schist of 0 m .65 was bored in 7 hours. A hole in 
compact schist of 0 m .61 was bored in 7.30 hours; in moderately hard sand- 


44 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


stone of 0 ra .31, in 10.30 hours; in less hard sandstone of 0 ra .67, in 10 
hours. 

During these trials the workmen made greater efforts than would have 
been made for a work of eight or ten hours. 

In the carboniferous sandstone the trials were not decisive. In the 
hard calcareous rock of Soignes the advance was only 0 m .013 per minute. 
In the hardest coal grit the trials failed completely; the drill only 
worked out a small quantity, and became heated and blunted in a few 
moments. 

In 1864, at La Fosse de Yillare at Anzin, the borer was experimented 
with for two days; two men worked it; the rate of advance was 0 m .045 
per minute, in a pretty hard pyritous rock. 

In 1864, at Seraing, in a block of sandstone of medium hardness, a 
rate of 0 m .017 per minute was obtained; the diameter of the hole was 
0 m .04, and two men worked the machine. 

From what has preceded it may be observed— 

1. That the erection and working of the apparatus require consider¬ 
able skill and judgment. 

2. That in granular and homogeneous stone the borer acts well. 

3. That in hard sandstone and quartz it has no action on the rock, 
and the tool wears up quickly; also that it works irregularly in rocks 
that contain masses of quartz. 

4. And lastly, that in wet rocks the work is difficult, and the rate 
scarcely appreciable. 


LESCHOT’S DRILL. 

The imperfections that Mr. Leschot, civil engineer and pupil of the 
Central School, had recognized in the employ of iron or steel in the boring 
of hard rocks or of metals, the drills softening rapidly, and often pro¬ 
ducing only an advance of 0 m .07 to 0 m .10 per hour, gave him the happy 
idea of applying a rotating tool acting in the manner of an annular 
cutter, and in which steel teeth should be replaced by diamonds. To 
accomplish this, he sets into a tubular washer or ring, about 0 m .005 or 
0 m .006 thick, black diamonds projecting 0 m .0005 at the most, some from 
within, some from without, and some in front. 

The opposite end carries an adjustment like a bayonet joint, which 
admits of this crown being adjusted upon a tube as a bayonet is placed 
upon a gun-barrel. He imparts to this ring so arranged a rotary move¬ 
ment, and at the same time presses it with considerable force against the 
stone to be bored. 

The first experiments that were made with this apparatus, which was 
mounted on a frame something like that of the Lisbet borer, led to the 
belief that this new system of boring the rock would be a complete suc¬ 
cess. In a granite of medium hardness, two men could bore 0 m .025 per 
hour; the cylindrical core left in the center was 0 ,n .031 in diameter, 
and the annular groove 0 m .043 in diameter; consequently the part pul¬ 
verized was equal to a cylinder 0 m .012 thick. 


MINING-BORING AND DRILLING. 


45 


Unfortunately experience lias not since confirmed the happy debut 
of this apparatus ; not because the employment of the ring was bad, but 
solely on account of the mode of advancing the drill, which depends on 
the velocity of the rotation of the cutting ring. The principle of this 
arrangement for advancement is evidently defective, for it is impossible 
to have a constant regular rate of advance in rocks which, by their na¬ 
ture, are constantly varying in hardness. In the soft parts of the rock, 
the advance of the tool not having been quick enough, it did not pro¬ 
duce its maximum amount of work; while in the hard rocks, quartz for 
instance, the advance was too rapid, and the diamonds either were dis¬ 
placed or reduced into powder. 


TROUILLET’S ROTATING EXCAVATOR. 

This, like the percussion apparatus by the same inventor, is intended 
to enlarge the lower portions of ordinary drill holes so as to make cham¬ 
bers for the reception of powder. It is similarly constructed, except 
that the work is performed by the rotation of steel cutters, attached to 
a central stem or shaft, to which motion is given by two cranks and 
gearing. The weight of the apparatus is GO kilogrammes, and its price 
is 450 francs. 

DE LA ROCHE-TOLLAY AND PERRET’S BORING APPARATUS. 

The complete apparatus of Messrs. De La Roche-Tollay and Ferret is 
composed of four distinct parts : 

1. The carriage which bears the borer. 

2. The motive power. 

3. The borer. 

4. The tool. 

Carriage or support. —This borer is intended to be arranged dif¬ 
ferently, according to the conditions under which it is to work. When 
it is intended to bore but one hole a single tool is used; when the front 
of a gallery or a tunnel is to be pierced in several points simultaneously, 
several boring machines will be indispensable. Consequently, in each 
particular case, the carriage or tool-bearer should be modified according 
to the local requirements. We do not, therefore, enter into the relative 
details of this part of the machine; we will merely state that Messrs. 
Huet and Geyler, engineers, have studied the different arrangements of 
the tool-carrier, and they have succeeded in rendering the working of 
the borer or borers easy and quick, in permitting them to assume any 
required direction on the carriage which bears them, and in giving an 
arrangement by which the carriage or support can be attached easily to 
the roof or wall of the gallery as well as upon the sides, and removed 
away rapidly to allow the powder to be fired and to carry away the 
debris. This arrangement is shown by Fig. 4, Plate III. 

Motive power. —This hydraulic motor has been contrived by Mr. 
Ferret, civil engineer at Bordeaux; it is composed of a horizontal cylin 
der bolted on the frame of the borer. 


46 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


This cylinder carries at its upper part a nozzle, to which is adapted a 
pipe in india-rubber, intended to conduct the water to the engine. 

In this cylinder a bronze tube is fitted, which we call the regulator. 
This is bored and turned with the greatest nicety, and is pierced with 
port-holes at the end. It receives a reciprocating motion from an eccen¬ 
tric, made of one piece, upon the axle of the engine. 

Two boxes furnished with segments in bronze, pressed by steel springs, 
maintain the regulator rigorously in the axis of the inner cylinder, which 
serves to envelop it. These segments have the effect of stopping the 
passage of the water round the regulator during its longitudinal move¬ 
ment. 

In the interior of the regulator there is a movable piston 0™.055 in 
diameter, furnished with capped leathers, upon the two faces of which 
the water alternately exerts its pressure. The length of stroke is 0 m .120. 
A connecting rod changes it into a continuous rotary motion in connec¬ 
tion with a cranked shaft provided with two fly-wheels acting as regu¬ 
lators. 

In order to ascertain the power of this new motive engine, we took 
300 litres of water, the pressure of which varied from 3 to 9J atmo¬ 
spheres, and we proved, by means of Prony’s break, in seven experi¬ 
ments that we made, that the practical result of the engine was 47 
to 57 per cent, of the theoretical effect. This machine represented, 
under the maximum pressure of 9J atmospheres, theoretically 3.82 horse¬ 
power, and practically 2.11 liorse-power. 

We shall presently show that the regular speed of this little machine 
ought to be from 200 to 250 revolutions per minute. This is represented 
by 140 litres of water per minute, and a practical effect of 1.70 horse¬ 
power, the water being at a pressure of 8 atmospheres. 

It will at once be seen what an important service this motive power 
will render when there is a sufficient supply of water. For example, at 
Mont Cenis (Bardonneclie) the torrent of Melzet has a fall of 45 metres; 
admitting that it is 35 metres only, to give allowance for loss, it follows 
that each machine on Mr. Perret’s principle would expend 320 litres per 
minute for one boring tool; thus, for the eight machines which are at 
work on the face of the rock, 2,560 litres, or 44 litres per second, would 
be required. The quantity of water at present used for working the 
compressors is 600 litres. It will be claimed as an advantage that the 
compressed air serves to aerate the gallery; this is true, but we find in 
the official returns that it requires for working the eight borers 6,250 
cubic metres of air for 24 hours, while 2,160 cubic metres is sufficient 
to renew the air vitiated by the fifteen men at work in the head of the 
gallery; it is also true, that they have sought to establish the fact that 
the balance, 4,000 cubic metres, were necessary to expel the noxious 
gases produced by the explosion of the powder; but practice has proved 
that much more powerful and altogether artificial means were required 
for this purpose. It would appear to us more rational to employ a part 


MINING—BORING AND DRILLING. 


47 


of the 56G litres remaining to work a Perret machine to drive an air ven¬ 
tilator. We ought also to add that the erection of the compressors and 
their buildings at Bardonneche lias cost 1,250,000 francs, and three- 
fourths of this expense would have been saved by the employment of 
Mr. Ferret’s machine. 

The boring machine of Mr. Perret is composed of a six-sided cast-steel 
shaft, l m .45 long, bored throughout its entire length with a hole 0 m .016 
diameter. This axle receives the boring tools at one of its extremities. 

The other extremity of the axle carries a bronze piston 0 m .ll diame¬ 
ter, upon which the requisite pressure is exerted for maintaining and 
pressing the drill against the face of the rock. This pressure is varied 
according to the hardness or the nature of the rock. A pressure of eight 
atmospheres is abundantly sufficient for boring hard rocks, such as the 
quartz of Mont Cenis and the granite of the Pyrenees. The pressure 
should be diminished for calcareous rocks to five or six atmospheres at 
most. Thus, with a pressure of eight atmospheres, the effort on the drill 
is equal to 784 kilogrammes. 

The water employed to act against the piston of the propeller is con¬ 
veyed by an india-rubber hose, the extremity of which is provided with 
a cock to regulate the pressure as may be required. 

To remove the perforating tube after a hole has been cut, the passage 
of the water to the cylinder is intercepted by a cock, and the flow is di¬ 
rected against the front face of the piston, admitting, at the same time, 
of the cylinder being emptied. In this manner the tube can be replaced 
with the greatest facility. 

The perforating shaft is fitted on the inside with a bronze frame, accu¬ 
rately bored to a depth of l m .14, for the propelling piston to work in. 
Holes from 0 m .90 to l m .00 deep, and from 0 m .035 to 0 m .0G, can be 
bored by this machine. 

The tool-bearing shaft traverses an iron socket held between two 
bearings arranged in front of the framing. The socket is provided with 
a bevel pinion, to which motion is imparted through the medium of an 
inclined shaft by a brass wheel keyed on the main shaft. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that in order to apply this borer to 
the Mont Cenis works, it should have a piston 0 m .lG diameter, since the 
pressure of the water there is only 34 atmospheres. 

The perforating tool made use of until recently by Messrs. I)e La 
Eoche-Tollay and Perret is the Leschot ring previously described, but 
there are still some points to be explained to complete the information 
relating to this kind of drill. 

It is understood that after the ring has been attached to the six sided 
perforating shaft, if it is rotated at a speed of about two hundred revolu- 
lutions per minute, by the effect of pressure exerted on the propeller 
piston, the black diamonds brought in contact with a softer substance 
will cut and wear it to an extent which will depend on the pressure on 
the piston and the hardness of the rock. By continuing this labor the 


48 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


groove can l>e made to a great depth, and the cylindrical core which re¬ 
mains attached to the rock enters the hole through the axis of the tool- 
carrier. When the operation is terminated the core is taken out in the 
shape of quite a regular cylinder, which only breaks when the rock is of 
a brittle nature, or has been previously cracked. It is evident that the 
use of this cutting ring saves considerable power, since a part of the rock 
is not pulverized. In the example which we have given in describing 
the Leschot perforator, the effort was only 61.441 tons per hour, while 
it would have been 204.5 tons if the entire matter had been pulver¬ 
ized. The ring employed by Messrs. De La Roche-Tollay and Perret is 
only 0 m .035 outside diameter, and the core worked was 0 m .014 in diameter. 

Cost of the tools. —We will now reply to an objection which has 
been raised as to the price of the tool. It is true that when the ring was 
first used a difficulty existed in the selection of the diamonds, which, 
from the nature of their cleavage, would be the most serviceable. The 
setting was not always performed as solidly as could be desired; but 
these difficulties have disappeared. We have examined two rings which 
were worked for seven months at the Exposition, and which have per¬ 
fectly resisted. We believe that we can affirm that in a hard stone like 
granite, a ring properly worked will cut holes to an aggregate depth of 
150 metres. A ring for boring holes, 0 m .030 diameter, costs about 150 
francs, but as the black and opaque diamonds used in its construction 
are ordinarily employed in the shape of dust for polishing transparent 
diamonds, and as their wear during the act of perforation is very slight, 
they can be extracted from the socket in which they are set, and be re¬ 
turned to the trade with a depreciation proportionate only to the diminu¬ 
tion of weight. The diamonds extracted from a worn-out ring generally 
fetch from seventy to eighty francs—that is to say, about one-half of their 
first cost. 

The following are the results of the experiments made during the Expo¬ 
sition. The pressure on the propelling piston was eight atmospheres, and 
the speed varied from two hundred and fifty to two hundred and eighty 
revolutions per minute- 

Advance per minute: In the pure Mont Cenis quartz, 0 m .054; in the 

Morvan porphyries, 0 ra .042; in granite, 0 m .050; in-, 0 m .018; in 

very hard calcareous dolomite, 0 m .080. 

The holes were perfectly regular, and being so, were well adapted to 
the use of powder cartridges, which are much less dangerous than the 
ordinary use of powder. 

As the pressure of the water injected into the hole through the hollow 
is the same as that acting on the piston, the powdered debris are washed 
away with the greatest facility. 

The hydraulic engine and the perforator have worked every day, during 
four hours, in a period of seven months, without necessitating any seri¬ 
ous repairs. The most important were repairing the piston-liead bear- 



MINING—COAL-CUTTING MACHINES. 49 

ings of the water engine and verifying the state of the segments belong¬ 
ing to the engine. 

The weight of the entire apparatus is equal to that of those used at 
Mont Cenis, viz: about two hundred kilogrammes; its price, including 
the engine, but without the support, is 2,500 francs. 

We cannot refrain from making a comparison between this perforator 
and the one employed at Mont Cenis. Its solidity, proved by seven 
months’ work, gives the assurance that twenty to twenty-two of these 
perforators would be sufficient for the heads of both galleries, including 
duplicates, instead of at least two hundred and twenty actually existing. 
Mr. Sommeilier’s perforators cost the same as those of Messrs. De La 
Roclie-Tollay and Perret. The staff would be four times less, for oue 
man can easily attend four perforators; thus four men instead of sixteen 
would suffice for twenty-four hours at the two galleries. 

The repairs to the rings require neither forges, lathes, or workshops; 
and we are convinced that a workman to each gallery would be sufficient 
for the repairs of all the perforators. We have stated that the rate of 
advance in the Mont Cenis quartz was 0 m .054 per minute, under a 
pressure of 874 kilogrammes on the propelling piston ; therefore a hole 
0 m .90 could have been driven in 10 minutes, say 20, and as each perfo¬ 
rator should make 10 holes, say 3J hours, even doubling this time for 
preparing the work, it will be seen that five stopes can be done in two 
days, including the time for blasting and clearing away the debris, 
which is equivalent to an advance of 2 m .25 per diem, instead of barely 
0 m .50, the actual rate of advance. 

The apparatus of Messrs. De La Roche-Tollay and Perret is not sub¬ 
jected to any shock; the pressure is exerted on the rock irrespective of 
the speed of the tool, and such pressure can be regulated as may be de¬ 
sired ; and when water power is obtainable, which is generally the case 
in mines and tunnels, the motive power actually costs nothing. 

Mr. Perret’s machine can also be worked by compressed air, and for 
this it would be sufficient to add a hydraulic accumulator to the per¬ 
forator carriage Such an accumulator would be but small since the 
volume of water required for advancing the piston one metre is 9£ 
litres, it would be sufficient to add two or three litres per hole, one metre 
deep, for washing out the holes. 

III.—COAL-CUTTING MACHINES. 

The two machines about to be described are intended for use in coal¬ 
mines, for under cutting or blocking out coal. One is the invention of 
Messrs. Jones and Levick; the other, of Messrs. Carrett, Marshall & Co., 
of England. 

JONES AND LEVICK’S MACHINE. 

This machine is composed of two distinct parts—the first for cutting or 
4 M 


50 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


striking the coal; the second, the motive power which supplies the com¬ 
pressed air. 

This coal-getting machine may be said to be a miner’s pick, actuated 
by compressed air. It is represented in section by Fig. 5, Plate III. A 
is a cylinder in which the piston B works, and the hollow stem of which 
carries at its extremity a connecting rod C, driving, by means of an arm 
D, the shaft E, to which the pick a is affixed. This shaft E is held be¬ 
tween two species of lugs F attached to the cylinder G. 

In order to give to the pick a any requisite position, the workman has 
only to turn the hand-wheel m; the pinion n keyed on the same shaft as 
the hand-wheel and gearing, into a wheel h cast with or attached to the 
cylinder G, carries with it this cylinder, which rotates freely in two col¬ 
lars II fixed to the carriage on which the cylinder A is fixed, thus the 
pick a fixed on the shaft E will assume any position which may be re¬ 
quired, and will be maintained in such a position by a bolt traversing 
one of the holes in the wheel m. A very ingenious arrangement, which 
we describe below, admits at the same time of the pick being brought 
back automatically in case it experiences any resistance before having 
come to the end of its stroke. 

We have mentioned above that the piston rod is hollow. A small rod 
M, bearing a tappet at each extremity, enters the said hollow part, and 
an ellipsoidal piece P, of cast-iron or brass, slides without friction on the 
rod between these two tappets. 

The rod M, at its free end, is connected to one of the arms of a lever, 
the fulcrum of which is at o, and the other arm actuates the rod N of 
the slide H. 

A hand-lever S is arranged so as to work the slide by hand. 

Supposing that the piston is in the position represented by the figure, 
the compressed air enters at K and drives the piston in the direction of 
the arrow, and the pick strikes the coal to be broken up. If now we 
suppose that the pick is arrested before the piston has finished its stroke, 
the cylinder P, moving forward by the impulse imparted by the piston 
B, will continue to advance, and will strike the tappet and the rod M, 
moving in the direction of the arrow, which will alter the position of the 
lever o, so that the introduction of the compressed air will take place at 
L, and the pick a will be brought back out of the groove. When the 
machine is at work a sharp knock is distinctly heard at each stroke of 
the piston, caused by the motion of the piece P. 

This machine is mounted on a carriage or truck with four wheels, and 
has an extended cast-iron platform T in the rear, for the man that 
works the machine. A crank-pin on a fly-wheel P actuates two bevel- 
wheels W, for moving the machine back or forward on the rails of the 
gallery. 

The handling of this machine is very simple. The workman on the 
platform turns the wheel m so as to bring the pick into the proper direc¬ 
tion; he then opens the cock admitting the compressed air, and admits 


MINING—COAL-CUTTING MACHINES. 


51 


the air into the cylinder A, by working the slide with the lever S. The 
machine being thus set in motion, it is merely requisite to move it for¬ 
ward by means of the wheel It to follow up the work done by the pick. 
The air, on leaving the cylinder, escapes freely into the gallery. 

We subjoin the results of two experiments made by this machine in 
two mines in England. 

In the High Boyd colliery, in a hard coal, and in a gallery in which 
the rails were in a bad state, with an air pressure of from 2 to 2J 
atmospheres and 70 to 80 blows per minute, the average hour’s work 
of the machine was a channel from 8 m .20 to 9 m .15 long and from 0 m .90 
to l m .00 deep, including stoppages. The width at the bottom was 0 m .037, 
and on the face 0 m .08. During 10 hoars’ consecutive work the work 
produced by this machine was equal to that of 20 miners during the 
same time; and it appears that the consumption of air is equal to about 
3 horse-power. 


CARRETT, MARSHALL & CO.’S COAL-CUTTING MACHINE. 


Messrs. Garrett, Marshall & Co.’s machine works like a hand-plane, and 
is actuated by water at a pressure of twenty atmospheres. It is composed 
of a horizontal cylinder A, (Fig. 0, Plate III,) in which the propelling piston 
works. To the rod of this piston is attached a bar M M, furnished with 
steel knives ccc placed about sixteen inches apart. A vertical cylinder 
B is connected with the preceding one, and its piston is provided with a 
rod, on the extremity of which is fixed a tappet or wedge O in such a 
manner as to turn around the point on which it is suspended. By means 
of a special combination of the distributing slide and a four-ways cock, 
the water is let on alternately and simultaneously on the faces of the two 
cylinder pistons in such a manner that, while the knives ccc are work¬ 
ing, the wedge C bears solidly against the roof of the gallery and scotches 
the machine on the rails. On the contrary, when the knives are retreat¬ 
ing the piston of the vertical cylinder descends, the wedge abandons its 
first position, and the machine is uuscotched and moves forward. The 
horizontal cylinder can turn between the wheels of the carriage so as to 
work either to the right or to the left. 

These two cylinders and pistons, with their accompanying parts, rest 
on an iron framing, which can be raised or lowered on slides fixed to the 
axles of the carriage by means of screws. 

The angle at which the instrument works in the gallery can be varied 
by means of the pinion G and the semicircular rack H. The nuts I I 
afford the means of regulating the inclination of the knife-carrier M 
with respect to the breast of the cut. 


The machine works in the following manner: The water comes up to 
the distributing valve, acts on the piston of the press B, and drives the 
tappet or wedge against the roof. 1 hiring this time the water also arrives 
at the back of the piston of the cylinder A, and the cutters move for¬ 
ward 0 m .40 each, which gives a total depth of l m .20 of cutting in the 
coal at each stroke of the piston. 


52 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


When the tools have reached the end of their stroke the water pene¬ 
trates above the piston of the press B and unscotches the wedge 0, while 
the piston of the cylinder A and the tools return. During this time a 
special mechanism turns the ratchet H; the machine draws on the chain 
K, and advances the requisite distance to take a new cut. 

According to the statement of Mr. Louis Ferret, engineer at Paris, 
Messrs. Garrett, Marshall & Co.’s agent, this machine, working at the 
rate of fifteen strokes of the piston per minute, requires three horse¬ 
power. One hour’s work produces a cut l m .20 deep and 13 ,n .50 to 15 m .00 
advance. The consumption of water is 135 litres per minute at a press¬ 
ure of twenty atmospheres. The weight of the machine is about one ton. 

This machine does not make vertical cuts. When the cuts have been 
run successively at the roof and at the foot wall of the gallery, the coal 
is hewed down between these two parallel faces. According to Mr. Fer¬ 
ret, the economy of waste is estimated at one-fifth, and the coal got is 
worth twenty-five per cent, more per ton. 

This machine is working regularly at the Bippax colliery, near Leeds, 
in several Scotch mines, as well as in the counties of Northumberland, 
York, and Stafford. It can be worked by a man and a boy. 

The use of this kirving machine is not exclusively limited to coal- 
getting; it can also be employed in iron and copper mines, freestone 
quarries, and generally in all rocks which can be easily cut—provided, 
however, such places have a good solid roof to which the machine can 
be attached by means of the wedge or tappet at the top. 


II.—TRANSPORTATION, HOISTING, AND 

PUMPING. 


CHAPTER III. 


UNDERGROUND TRAMMING — HOISTING AND 

PUMPING ENGINES. 

Introductory—Transportation underground ; tramming—Evrar’s lubricating 
boxes — Examples of underground transportation — Hoisting engines — 
Steam-brakes—Diameter of winding drum—Iron derricks—Pumping and 

DRAINING MACHINERY—CORNISH ENGINES—ORDINARY PUMPING ENGINES—RAISING 
WATER BY GUIDED KIBBLES—CHAIN PUMP—RUSSIAN PUMP. 

INTRODUCTORY. 


Although few of the machines in this class at the Exposition of 1867 
could be regarded as new inventions, most of them having been known 
and used in one form or another for a long time, great improvements 
were shown in their construction and adaptation to the increased duty 
required of them in the present advanced state of mining industry. 

The rapidly-increasing production of the coal mines of Great Britain 
and the Continent has necessitated great improvements in the methods 
of transportation underground. The wagons used for the purpose and 
their running gear are no longer roughly and rudely constructed, but 
are made with great care. The wheels are accurately made, well bored, 
and fitted with carefully-turned axles, and these are kept well lubricated 
with grease-boxes, so as to prevent loss of power, wear, and friction. In 
some of the coal mines in England men and horses for drawing the 
loaded cars have been replaced by steam-engines, which, by means of 
cables, give motion to twenty or thirty wagons at one time. 

In hoisting coal or ores from mines very great improvements have 
been made in the engines and in the cages or platforms for the wagons. 
By means of properly-guided cages over four times as much material 
can be raised now in a given time as was formerly possible. This is 
accomplished, not only by increasing the quantity or weight hoisted at 
one time, but by increasing the velocity of movement, which is rendered 
possible by the improvements in the hoisting engines, and by the appli¬ 
ances to prevent accidents, such, for example, as powerful steam-brakes, 
parachutes, and other contrivances. 

Machines have been made, as is well known, to convey miners from 
the surface to the bottom of the mines, or the reverse, with safety and 
expedition, and without exertion or fatigue on their part. Great changes 
have been made in the methods of sinking shafts, and in the tools for 
the purpose, and in machines for pumping, ventilating, and for drilling 
and cutting rocks and excavating coal. 



54 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


I.—TRANSPORTATION UNDERGROUND—TRAMMING. 


EVRAR’S LUBRICATING BOXES. 


This is a contrivance for supplying oil in moderate and regular quan¬ 
tities to the journals or hearings of the wheels of wagons for under¬ 
ground tramming, and for excluding all grit and dirt from the bearing 
surfaces. The wheels are supported by journals J J, (Fig. 1,) working- 
in a hollow cylinder or box a extending across the bottom of the car. This 
cylinder is calibered at each end, for one-third of its length, for the recep¬ 
tion of the journal. The middle third of the cylinder is left rough, and 
receives an oil-box, which may be tilled through a hole in the cylinder, 
closed by a screw s, with a conical point which enters the oil-box and 
nearly closes the hole in it, leaving only a small opening, through which 
oil can exude in small quantities whenever a bubble of air enters. The 
journals are retained in their places by caps c c, fixed to the truck and 
fitting over the ends of the cylinder and catching upon a shoulder left 
upon the journal. 

Fig. I- 



Evrar’s Self-lubricating Axle. 


Axles of this kind used upon wagons at the mines of the Yicargne 
Company consume a decilitre of oil in running an aggregate distance 
of 150 kilometres—about 02 miles. Oil is renewed every fortnight. 

Examples of underground transportation. —In most of the 
coal mines of England the regularity of the strata is such that a shaft 
may be used for a long time for the extraction of an enormous amount 
of coal brought to the shaft from great horizontal distances below. It 
is not unusual to see in Great Britain shafts from which 600, 1,000, 
1,200, and even 1,500 or 1,600 tons are extracted in twenty-four hours. 
Such an amount of work, extending over great periods of time, requires 
all the parts of the shaft to be constructed in a solid and permanent 
manner. In France the formations are generally more broken and dis¬ 
located. 


For the conveyance of such immense quantities of coal to the shafts 
it is necessary to use power greater than is afforded by men trundling 
the wagons in the usual way. The coal is loaded into wagons contain¬ 
ing from ,350 to 450 kilogrammes each, and five or six of these wagons 
are then formed into trains, which are drawn by horses to the main 


tram-ways, which vary in length from a few hundred yards to even a 
mile. 

Tram ways may be divided into three classes: first, those in which 
the slope towards the shaft is sufficient for trains to descend by their own 
gravity, and, in descending, to draw up the empty trains; second, those 































MINING-UNDERGROUND TRANSPORTATION. 


55 


Fig. 2. 


in which the grade is reversed, and sufficient to permit the empty trains 
to descend from the shaft to the end of the road by their own gravity; 
third, those in which the bed or grade is horizontal, or nearly so, neces¬ 
sitating power for the movement of the trains either way. 

In the second class the loaded trains are usually drawn up toward the 
shaft by means of a cable wound upon a drum by a steam-engine, while 
the empty cars are lowered by a cable unwinding from the same drum. 
In the third class an endless rope or cable, which traverses the gallery 
along the track between the rails, is moved by an engine, and the trains 
are coupled to this moving rope and so carried to their destination. A 
few details upon this third class of tram-roads may be desirable. It is 
understood that a double track is laid on the levels where this method 
of moving the trains is used. The general arrangement of the cables, 
the engine, &c., are shown by Fig. 2. 

The driving engine is gen¬ 
erally placed in a recess cut at 
one side of the gallery, and 
near an air-shaft, by which the 
smoke from the furnaces can 
escape. The cable is wound 
upon a drum, and is supported 
throughout its course by hori¬ 
zontal rollers, and in the curves 
is guided by vertical rollers. 

At the ends of the route the 
cable turns upon drums placed 
between the tracks, the diame¬ 
ter of which is equal to the dis¬ 
tance from the center of the 
roads. In some cases the ca¬ 
bles run for a part of the dis¬ 
tance underground. In order 
to secure a proper tension of 
the cable, it is passed over a 
pulley upon a movable frame, 
counterpoised in such a way as 
to take up the slack of the ca¬ 
ble and give a constant ten¬ 
sion. The cable travels con¬ 
stantly in one direction, and 
thus moves opposite ways upon 
the two tracks. Trains of 
twenty or thirty wagons are 
moved by this arrangement. 

In some mines the engine 

was established on the surface, Tramming l»y Hteam power underground. 

















































56 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


and the cable was guided to the bottom by pulleys and sheaves; this was 
the first plan adopted, but it occasions too much friction and wear of the 
rope, and now the engine is always placed underground. 

To start or stop the trains it is not necessary to stop the cables. There 
is a conductor in the first wagon of each train. When he wants to put 
the train in motion he lifts up the cable with a hook, makes it pass along 
a wooden block fixed under the wagon, and by means of a lever lie brings 
forward a wooden wedge which squeezes the cable against the wooden 
block. Cable and wagon, being then connected, move together. By 
maneuvering his lever the other Avay, the conductor disconnects the rope 
and stops the train. When the train arrives opposite the machine, or 
where the cable runs underground, the conductor loosens the rope and 
the train runs alone. The momentum carries the train up to the point 
where the cable reappears; the conductor then again connects the rope 
to the train as before. 

In the coal mines of Pelton the principal road is 1,500 metres in length 
It is partly horizontal and partly on a slope of five degrees. The driving 
cable is 0 m .022 in diameter, its running speed is 6 m .00 per second, and it 
carries a train of 30 wagons; the width of the rail is 0 m .60; the strength 
of the motive power is 40 horse-power; and the cable transports 52 trains 
in 12 hours, representing a duty of 560. tons of coal. 


Francs. 

The labor costs. 13. 50 

Coal (refuse) for fuel, 6 tons at 3 francs.. 18. 00 

Repairs, interest, &c. 76. 50 


Total. 108.00 


Which represents a cost of 0.137 franc per ton per kilometre. Under 
the most favorable conditions transportation by horses costs 0.21 franc 
per ton, and by trammers, 0.67 franc. 

II.—HOISTING ENGINES. 

The hoisting engines exhibited in the palace of the Champ de Mars 
were all double-cylinder engines, acting directly on the drum or reel. 
This style now predominates throughout the mining regions of England, 
France, and Belgium. 

Hoisting was formerly done at a very low speed, and consequently the 
drums turned very slowly. To run them directly by the engine would 
have required very heavy machinery, and considerable expense to put 
them up. Practice gradually proved that engines of comparatively small 
power could be conveniently run at high speed. Such small hoisting- 
engines were from thirty to thirty-five horse power. They were quite 
light—had only one cylinder—but could be run three or four times as 
fast as the drum, which was geared by a cog-wheel. 

But as the weight of stuff to be hoisted was constantly increasing, as 
well as the number of the revolutions of the drum, the motive power 







MINING—HOISTING APPARATUS. 


57 


was also increased to reduce tlie number of revolutions of the engine, 
until the number of revolutions of both engine and drum was about 
equal. At that time it was thought more simple to get rid of the cog¬ 
wheel and gearing in general, and to connect the drum directly with the 
connecting rod of the steam-cylinder. 

In order to tacilitate the reversing of the motion in these engines, the 
power was divided between two coupled cylinders instead of one. The 
two connecting rods acted on the drum by cranks at right angles. 

This method has both advantages and inconveniences. The steam can 
be reversed immediately, and the drum may be turned at will, and in an 
instant, either one way or the other. With tlie fly-wheel and gearing 
construction, it was quite dangerous to reverse the steam. On the other 
hand, the exhaust of the steam must be very perfect, or the action of the 
cylinders would be irregular. The larger the cylinders are the greater 
the slide-valve must be—more strength must be exerted by the engineer 
when they have to be moved. 

Considerable improvements have been made in the slide-valves. In 
France and in England they have been replaced by distributing valves, 
which require very little exertion to operate, and can be maneuvered as 
as well by Mr. Stevenson’s reversing motion. 

The double-cylinder direct-acting engines are made either with vertical 
or horizontal cylinders. In England they generally prefer the former, 
inasmuch as they have the advantage of permitting the main drum to 
be placed above at a considerable height, and thus to diminish the slope 
of the cable. This is, doubtless, an important point; but when the drums 
are set up so high it requires very strong and expensive frameworks to 
sustain them, and such frames are more or less liable to vibrations? 
whereas with the horizontal-cylinder engines the drum and engine are 
placed on the same foundation and are much more stable and solid.* 

The Creuzot company exhibited in the French section an engine with 
two coupled horizontal cylinders, with very long strokes, and acting 
directly on the drum. 

In the Belgian section Messrs. Dorzee and Oudry exhibited a double- 
cylinder hoisting engine, some features of which are new. The cylinders 
are vertical, and are supported on two substantial and firm cast-iron 
frames or towers, above the drum-shaft, placed level with the floor. The 
cylinders act downward on the drum instead of upward, as in the 
English vertical engines. This style does not diminish the obliquity of 
the cable, and although it may secure a firm foundation for the drum, 
yet we believe that horizontal cylinders would act better, be firmer, and 
cost less to put up. 

STEAM-BRAKES. 


Powerful steam-brakes are now quite extensively used to avoid acci¬ 
dents when hoisting at high speed. Collisions will frequently occur 
between the two cages or buckets, and sometimes the cages or buckets 


58 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


will be drawn up too high and be in danger of passing over the sheaves 
at the head of the shaft. It is, therefore, necessary to have the means 
of quickly arresting the motion of the drum. A great deal has been 
said against steam-brakes; it is claimed that- 2 *they never are in good 
working order, and that when the accident happens they do not act in 
a satisfactory manner. These objections may be avoided if the steam- 
brake is constantly used by the engineer for all the maneuvering. 


DIAMETER OF WINDING DRUMS. 

Notwithstanding the great increase in the velocity of the drum and 
the rate of hoisting, it was long before the diameter of the drum was 
altered. It used to vary from two and a half to four metres, but it was 
found, as the mines grew deeper, that the wear and tear of the ropes and 
cables (wire ropes especially) when coiled around a small drum were 
very great. To avoid the short bend around small drums, their diameter 
was greatly increased, and was finally carried to seven metres, (from 
twenty-one to twenty-two feet.) Of course, in this case, the number of 
revolutions of the drum for the same hoisting speed has been reduced, 
but, as it requires very expensive engines to run them directly, there is 
a tendency to return to the old style of gearing the drum by a cog-wheel, 
and to run it with lighter but higher-speed engines. 

These large drums are particularly desirable for wire ropes, which are 
destroyed very fast by a short bend. On these large circumferences the 
turns are fewer, and the cable need not be coiled several times over 
itself, which causes great wear and destruction of the strands. Each 
turn of a drum 22 feet in diameter represents 66 feet of length of cable, 
and 25 rounds will reach 1,650 feet deep. With a rope one and a half 
inch thick the drum would have to be a little over three feet in length. 
In such a case the radius of the drum in winding would remain the same 
when wire rope is used; but this is not the case with hemp rope, which 
has a much greater diameter, and when winding up around the drum it 
must coil upon itself several times, and thus increase considerably the 
radius of the drum, and, on the other hand, in unwinding or lowering 
into the shaft, the radius of the drum is rapidly reduced. 

The difference of radius is insufficient to compensate for the weight of 
the unwound cable, and such an arrangement requires powerful engines 
to lift up the dead weight of cable at the start. From that moment less 
and less power is required until the two buckets or cages meet in the 
shaft; then the descending cable gradually takes the advantage of the 
ascending one, and the steam-engine, instead of driving, is soon driven 
with an increased velocity by the increasing weight of the descending 
cable. To avoid these inconveniences a system of counterpoises is used. 
Hopes carrying a counterpoise are wound around sheaves placed on the 
shaft of the drum; these counterpoises play up and down the shaft for 
about fifty or sixty metres; the cable unrolls as it goes down, and the 
radius of the sheaves diminishes. It is so arranged that when the entire 


MINING—PUMPING ENGINES. 


59 


cable is paid out and the counterpoise is down, the two buckets or cages 
pass each other in the shaft. At tliat time the strain upon the hoisting 
drum changes, as also the action of the counterpoise. The rotary motion 
°t the hoisting drum continues in the same direction, as also that of the 
sheave, which now winds up the rope of the counterpoise in the opposite 
direction. The force required to raise up this counterpoise counterbal¬ 
ances the weight of the descending cable. 

Another way, which gives better results, consists in using a very 
heavy cast-iron chain as a counterpoise. 

Some attempts have lately been made to suppress the sheave entirely, 
and to hoist directly with the drums, by placing them over the shaft. 

Drums seven metres in diameter are placed on the top of the shaft, 
instead of the sheaves, and are driven directly by a double-cylinder 
engine. This system, which is fully described in u Le materiel des houil- 
leres , w by Professor A. Burnt, has not been entirely successful so far; but 
it has shown, however, that an economy of fifty per cent, can be realized 
on the wear and tear of cables. 

If it is difficult to do away entirely with the sheaves, yet it is quite 
easy to increase their diameter so as to avoid giving a short bend to the 
cables, which quickly ruins them, and particularly wire ropes. 

A series of rollers placed on a curve of a very large radius might be 
advantageously used instead of large sheaves. 

IKON DEKEICKS. 

One of the most recent improvements is the substitution of iron for 
wood in the construction of poppet heads or derricks over shafts. Such 
constructions, made of wood, soon decay, and are insecure, but when 
made of iron they are at once more durable, stronger, and lighter. The 
collective exhibition from St. Etienne contained a fine example from the 
mines of St. Louis. This structure rises about thirty-five feet from the 
mouth of the shaft to the axis of the pulleys. The pillars and girders 
are hollow, and are formed of segments of cast iron bolted together by 
means of suitable flanges. The principal supports are oval, the longest 
diameter being placed in the direction of the greatest strain. The total 
weight of the iron is 22,000 kilogrammes, and the cost, at 55 francs per 
100 kilogrammes, is about 12,000 francs. This does not include the 
pulleys or the guides for the cages, or the painting. 1 

\ 

III.—PUMPING AND DEAINING MACHINERY. 

The Universal Exposition of 1807 contained no full-size model of 
pumps or draining machines. Most of these machines are only made to 
order, and, besides, their tremendous weight would have occasioned too 
great an expense for transportation. They were represented only by 

1 Vide Iierue de VExposition de 1867, 1 and 2, with an excellent plate showing the details 
ot construction.—E d. 



GO 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


drawings and small models, most of which were inventions of a mere 
theoretical kind and which had not been put in practice. 

Another reason which explains the slight importance given to these 
machines at the Exposition is that for many years past no very novel 
features have been introduced in their construction. Doubtless, their 
construction has been improved as well as that of all other kinds of 
machines, but no radical change has been effected in their principle. 

Although the most costly of all kinds of machines, as far as the erec¬ 
tion is concerned, the Cornish engine continues to be exclusively used for 
elevating large quantities of water from very great depths. 

CORNISH ENGINES. 

The Cornish engine has been for some time past constructed on two 
different plans, viz, the beam engine and the direct-acting engine. 

When this last form was first introduced it was thought to be a great 
improvement, on account of the suppression of the beam; but it was 
soon discovered that the working of these machines was far from being 
perfect, and the beam was quickly re-established, as much for the sake 
of carrying the weights employed for counterbalancing the rods as for 
imparting motion to the condenser, without which the Cornish engine 
loses its most precious advantage, viz, the economy of fuel. 

Brought back to this new form, the direct-acting engine has all the 
organs of the old Cornish type, and costs nearly as much. If it has the 
advantage of taking less room, and consequently necessitating less extent 
of building, on the other hand it blocks up the mouth of the shaft, and 
verv often its foundations cost as much as those of the first kind. 

There is, therefore, no reason for giving the preference, at first sight, 
to either of these two systems; local circumstances will cause a decision 
either in favor of one or the other. 

Those who would like to become acquainted with all the newest models 
of this sort of machine will find full descriptions in the u Le materiel ties 
houilleres ,” by Professor Burat, of Paris, and in the u Fortfeuille Coeker- 
illj” of Belgium. 

With regard to novelty of details, we have none to call attention to, 
unless it be the increasing tendency of placing the main rod in the axis 
of the pumps. When the rod is of wood it is separated iuto two parts 
where it passes a pump in the shaft, and the pump is placed between 
the two parts of the rod. When the rods are made of iron two separate 
ones are placed one on each side of the pumps, and they are united 
together at certain distances so as to keep them equidistant. 

For distributing the steam the cataract and Hornblower’s well-known 
equilibrium valve are employed. 

ORDINARY PUMPING ENGINES. 

Pumping engines of a smaller description show considerable variety 
in their construction; none, however, possess any striking novelty. 


MINING—PUMPING MACHINERY. 


61 


Among them we would mention the double-action engine, placed at the 
bottom ol the works, and working directly one or two pumps equally 
double-acting, and forcing the water at one stroke up to the surface. 
This system is simple and cheap as regards first cost, but consumes too 
much fuel, as it is generally constructed without condensing apparatus. 
It can hardly be used except when the machine can be established over 
some large excavations deep enough to gather the water for ten or fifteen 
days; otherwise it would be impossible to make any repairs either to the 
pumps or the engine without danger of being overflowed. This has 
tended to prevent the system from being adopted, notwithstanding its 
simplicity. 

In depths not exceeding one hundred metres (three hundred feet) suc¬ 
tion and lifting pumps are used, and worked directly from rods at the 
orifice of the shaft. These rods, which are either of wood or iron, work 
in the pipes of the pumps. The pipes are united directly to the body of 
the pumps, and have a slightly-increased diameter, so as to permit the 
easy removal of the pistons. 

In many cases, when the driving engine has more power than is abso¬ 
lutely necessary for hoisting, the surplus of power can be made available 
for working a couple of lifting pumps of the kind above mentioned. In 
this case the pumps work under the same conditions as the hoisting 
itself, stopping when necessary to fasten or unfasten the kibbles, and 
turning in one or the other direction according to the change of the 
working. 

A temporary and inexpensive system of pumping is thus obtained, 
and is very serviceable until the increasing amount of water requires a 
special pumping engine. 

RAISING WATER BY GUIDED KIBBLES. 

In some cases one of the most ancient systems of pumping is still in 
use; we allude to the extraction of the water by means of kibbles sus¬ 
pended on cables. 

As at first established, this system only permitted the elevation of 
small quantities of water; but owing to the perfection of the engines 
now employed, this class of machines can be employed with great advan¬ 
tage. Since the perfection of the guides employed in the shafts is such 
that ponderous loads of water can be raised very rapidly, the ancient 
wooden kibbles, which brought up 500 to 000 quarts at a time, have been 
replaced by iron tanks of horizontal rectangular or circular form, which 
will hold from 2,500 to 3,000 quarts, and travel from 9 to 30 feet (3 .00 
to 12 ra .00) per second. 

Under these circumstances large quantities of water can be brought to 
the surface, if care be taken to render as easy as possible the filling and 
emptying, which can be readly accomplished by making use of large valves. 

HUET AND GEYLER’S CHAIN PUMP. 

Lastly, we mention a trial made by Messrs. Huet & Geyler of their 


62 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Fig. 3. 


well-known system, but which to our knowledge had not been employed 
before for the drainage of mines. 

The chain pump, which has been much used for domestic purposes, is 
composed of a pipe open at both ends and in which an endless chain 
passes, carrying at equal distances disks of iron, which nearly till the 
pipe and act as buckets. 

Messrs. Huet & Geyler construct these buckets with an india-rubber 
ring, which acts as a stuffing and fits the tube closely. 

Two twin pumps were mounted and had to lift the water to a height 
of* twenty-five metres (about seventy-five feet) only. One pump alone 
was intended for working, the other being simply placed there for use 
in case of accident. 

The internal diameter of the pipes was 0 m .07. These pipes were of 
copper drawn without being soldered, and only 0 m .002 thick. 

They were made in lengths of six metres, (eighteen feet,) and were 
united together by means of flanges and bolts. The endless chain was 
of ordinary construction ; its links were of iron, 0 m .01 in diameter. 

The pistons or buckets were made in 
five pieces; (see sketch.) The stuffing was 
composed of a single india-rubber ring. 
Experience has taught that in order to ob¬ 
tain the maximum amount of work it was 
necessary that this caoutchouc ring should 
come in contact with the sides of the pipe, 
but without pressing on them. As the in¬ 
dia-rubber wears, it is screwed up by a nut 
and a set nut. When it becomes necessary 
to renew the ring, it is easily accomplished 
by unscrewing the two nuts and removing 
■ the key A. 

These pistons were placed at distances of 
three metres (nine feet) apart. The chain 
passes over a grooved pulley or sprocket- 
wheel, the groove of which is 0 m .01 larger 
than the buckets. Studs introduced in this 
groove prevent the chain from slipping; 
they are adapted to the pulley and can be 
easily changed as may be desired. The 
speed of the chain is ninety metres (270 feet) 
per minute. 

Thus constructed, this pump, which has 
now been at work for ten months without 
any other stoppage or repair than that of 
changing three times the india-rubber stuff¬ 
ing, has con sta 11 tly ra i sed quan tities of water 
varying from 150 to 200 cubic metres per 
Huet & Geyier’s Chain Pump, day of nine to ten hours. 
























MINING-PUMPING MACHINERY. 


63 


Fig. 4. 


On account of its simplicity and its small amount of wear and tear, 
this pump might be well adapted to larger diameters and to operate at 
much greater depths, taking care to divide the column at every twenty 
or twenty-five metres by means of reservoirs. 

RUSSIAN PUMP. 

A model of an apparatus for raising water was exhibited in the 
Russian section. It is very ingenious, but has not been yet practically 
used. This apparatus is composed of a tube running from the reservoir 
to the surface outlet. (Rig. 4.) This tube is divided by equidistant 
partitions, with a valve in the centre of each. 

Pipes fixed in the partitions and under each valve, 
descend into each compartment and stop quite near 
the bottom. Two tubes follow the length of the cen¬ 
tral pipes, and by means of elbow pipes establish com¬ 
munication between two alternate sections of the cen¬ 
tral pipe. The pipe which communicates with the 
compartments of even numbers 2, 4, and 0 connects 
directly with the outside air. 

The other pipe in communication with the compart¬ 
ments of odd numbers 1, 3, and 5 is connected with a 
large pump which alternately rarities or compresses 
the air. 

A vacuum being made by the pump, the water rises 
from the reservoir and runs in the section No. 1. Then 
the pump compresses air and the water passes from 
section No. 1 to section No. 2 by the connecting tube, 
and the excess of compressed air escapes through the 
open tube. 

When the pump makes the vacuum again in all sec¬ 
tions of odd numbers, the compartment one fills as 
before, and, at the same time, the atmospheric pressure 
forces the water from section No. 2 into section No. 3, 
which is empty. When the apparatus is put in motion Russian Pump, 
the pumps create the vacuum, the compartments 1,3, 5, &c., fill under the 
influence of the atmospheric pressure, and when the pump compresses 
the air in the odd sections the water runs in the compartments of even 
numbers, and so on. 

It is possible that air contained in the water, when escaping under 
the influence of the vacuum, might prevent the action of this pump. It 
is probable, however, that the greatest amount of air escapes through the 
open pipe at the time the water is forced from the odd to the even num¬ 
bered sections. 

Practice only will prove whether this ingenious contrivance can be 
made available for mining purposes. 




















































































CHAPTER IV. 

MAN-ENGINES AND PARACHUTES. 


Descent of miners by means of fixed ladders—Lowering men by means of 
cables—Construction of the man-engine—The rods—Landing-places or 
stages— Support of the rods—Hydraulic regulators—Movement of the 
man engine—Parachutes for tiie prevention of accidents to cages—Cages. 


I.—THE DESCENT OF MINERS. 


Fahrkunst, or man-engines, are not of recent invention; one or two 
early examples are known in Germany, and were established there 
toward the middle of the last century. These first machines were aban¬ 
doned, perhaps, from not acting properly or from not being a real neces¬ 
sity at the time, and seventy or eighty years passed away before they 
again came into use. 

As by degrees the mines of Germany, Belgium, and England became 
deeper, various plans were devised to procure cheap and easy means of 
descent for the workmen; and the man-engine was again brought into 
notice. From the most remote antiquity three methods have been in 
common use for the descent into mines, viz : inclined planes, ladders, and 
ropes. 

Inclined planes have been used only in shallow mines; in deep mines 
the length and cost becomes so great that they cannot be used. 

DESCENT BY FIXED LADDERS. 


The descent by fixed ladders is the most common, and is certainly the 
safest and the most economical of all the ways yet tried to get to the 
bottom of mines of moderate depth and in all preparatory workings. 
When ladder-ways are well made, they are isolated from the rest of the 
shaft by partitions or brettices. The serious fall of a man in these cases 
is very rare, and can only happen through imprudence or carelessness. 
The workman has his safety in his own hands, and the accidents are 
few and slight. 


Statistics show that of one hundred accidents occurring upon ladders, 
there are only about twelve fatal. But this mode of descent is inadmis¬ 
sible in deep workings and is then subject to three great inconveniences— 
first, it ruins the health of the miners who are compelled for a certain 
time every day to go up and down; second, the fatigue imposed upon 
the miners deprives them of some of their energy at their daily work; 
third, it takes a considerable time to change the shifts of men or relays. 

To go down 100 metres of ladder requires about 15 minutes, (900 
seconds,) equal to 9 seconds per metre. If we suppose that the men 


MINING-RAISING AND LOWERING MINERS. 


65 


follow each other at 2 metres distance, after the first man has arrived at 
the bottom of the shaft, it will be 18 seconds before the second man 
gets to the bottom, and so on ; so that if the shift is composed of 200 
men, it will require 900 seconds -f 200 x 18 seconds = 900 + 3G00 
seconds = 4500 seconds, or 1 hour 15 minutes, for them all to descend to 
the bottom. 

If the shaft is 400 metres deep, 15 minutes per 100 metres must be 
added for the descent of the first man, which makes altogether 2 hours 
for 200 men; with this basis for calculation it is easy to find the time 
required for the descent of any number of men to any given depth. 

The ascent of 100 metres of ladder requires about twice as much time 
as the descent; then if we take the depth of 400 metres, and the num¬ 
ber of men 200, we have for the descent by ladders 2 hours, and for the 
ascent 4 hours, in all G hours, which, added to 8 hours work per shift, 
makes 14 hours, during G hours of which the work in ascending and 
descending is much harder than the actual mining. 

It is impossible for men to continue to perform such labor, so that in 
most mines over 250 metres deep the hours of real work are shortened 
and the balance of the time is set apart for the work of ascending and 
descending. 

The Polytechnic Society of Cornwall, in comparing the rate of mor¬ 
tality amongst men working at different depths, (accidents deducted,) 
estimates that in works of 400 to 500 metres in depth, where ladders 
are used, the lives of the men are shortened by twenty years. However 
this may be, it is certain that the prolonged use of ladders gives rise to 
serious derangements of the organs of respiration and renders a certain 
number of men unfit for work before they are thirty years old. 

LOWERING BY ROPES AND CAGES. 

The time required for lowering and raising a shift of men by cables, 
is not as easy to estimate as that required where ladders alone are used. 
It depends, in fact, on two variable elements—the rate of speed, and the 
number of men that can be lifted at each time. 

The rate of speed varies according to the importance of the workings; 
in shafts without guides it is often from one to two metresper second; in 
shafts provided with guides and cages, it is from three to twelve metres 
per second ; but when the men are taken up and down in the cages, the 
speed is often slackened, keeping it about three to six metres per second. 
The number of men carried at once is from two to three in the small work¬ 
ings, and sixteen to twenty, or more, in mines of greater extent. 

A comparison of the time required for the descent by ladders and by 
lowering in cages maybe made as follows: Assuming that there are 
200 men in a shift and that the depth is 400 metres, the rate of speed, 
averaging, say five metres, and that eight men are carried at once—at five 
metres per second, to ascend or descend 400 metres requires ^oo. = 80 
5 M 


66 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


seconds. To this must be added about two minutes (120 seconds) for 
the stepping in and out of the men, and the starting and stopping of the 
engine, which makes altogether 120 + 80 = 200 seconds. Lowering 8 
men at once, we have ^-§-£=25 journeys in all for the shift; the time will 
therefore be 25 x 200 seconds = 5000 seconds = 1 hour 24 minutes. 
Doubling this for the entire time in goinginto and out of the mine, will 
be 2 hours 48 minutes, which is half the time taken for the ascent and 
descent of the same number of men by ladders. 

But these figures are not absolute; they may vary widely, either more 
or less, according to the extent of the workings. 

The advantages and disadvantages of the rope are inversely to those 
of the ladders; the health of the men does not suffer, but there is less 
security, and accidents are much more serious. 

Accidents by ropes and by ladders are as 3 to 2 ; but this ratio is still 
increased by the fact that of 100 accidents to men, 94 are killed and 0 
injured. 

These deplorable consequences from this method of transportation of 
miners caused the Prussian government to prohibit the lowering or rais¬ 
ing of men by the cages in the mines of Prussia. 

In other countries they are still used together with the ladders up to 
this time, but the man-engine has again come into use, and will now be 
described. 


CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAN-ENGINE. 


The movable ladders (echelles mobiles) called in Germany Fahrkunst , 
and in England man-engine , present, when well constructed all the 
desirable conditions for security, rapidity of motion, and for health. 

They are all alike in principle, and consist essentially of two strong 
beams or rods hung side by side in the shaft of a mine. Each beam lias 
platforms or landings large enough for a man to stand upon placed at 
equal distances from the top to the bottom. Handles to be grasped by 
the hands of the men are attached at a convenient height above each 
platform. 

One of these beams, or both of them, is connected with an alterna¬ 
ting movement, combined in such a manner that, at the moment the 
movement changes, the stages of both beams or rods are level with each 
other. 

The difference between one man-engine and another consists only in 
the particulars of construction, and in the manner in which the motion 
is given to the rods. 


There was nothing especially new in the Exposition, either in the small 
models or in the drawings, and we will therefore abstain from describ¬ 
ing them, but will point out the improvements in the details while 
reviewing successively all the separate parts forming the whole of the 


MINING-RAJSING AND LOWERING MINERS. 


67 


Before noticing tliese details, we will give a description of tlie princi¬ 
ple of the man-engine for those persons who may not he familiar with 
its action. 

Let ns suppose that the rods E and D range all the depth of the 
mine shaft, and that at equal distances stages A, B, 0, &c., are fixed 


Fig. 5. 


ft 


O. 


to the rods opposite to each other. 

Fig. 5 shows a portion of the rods R R', with their stages 
or platforms A A 7 , B B', C C ; , placed at equal distances. An 
alternate upward and downward movement is given to each 
of these rods; while the rod R, with its stages, is ascending, 
the opposite rod R' is descending. This movement brings 
the platform A on the rod R opposite to the platform B' on 
rod R', and the platform B opposite the platform C v . The mo¬ 
tion is then arrested for a moment, and is immediately after- b_ 

ward reversed, and the platforms return to their original 
position. If now r miners are standing upon the platforms of 
R, they will all be raised by the upward movement a distance 
equal to half the distance between the platforms. At this 
point, the motion ceasing, the miners step from the platforms 
of the rod R to those upon the rod R', and by the next move¬ 
ment are again lifted, when they step across as before, and 
so on until the top of the shaft is reached. The descent is 
similarly accomplished. B 

In a few cases only one of the rods moves, and the other 
remains stationary, or rather the second rod is omitted and 
stages are fixed to the side of the shaft in the rock itself ; in 
such cases the single rod has to move the whole distance 
between two stages instead of half that distance, as when 
two rods are used. 

When a single rod is used in connection with fixed stages, 
the miners pass alternately from the stage on the rod to the 
stage fixed in the rock. They then wait until the half-stroke 
brings a fresh stage opposite to them, on which they place 
themselves, and so on. 

The distance between two stages on the same shaft gener- ^ 
ally varies from 4 m .50 to 8 m .00. The stroke of the apparatus with two 
movable shafts is always half the distance between the stages, conse¬ 
quently it varies from 2 m .25 to 4 m .00. There are from four to eight dou¬ 
ble strokes per minute. 

I 11 order to estimate the time required for the ascent and descent of 
miners by this engine, let us take our standard example, 400 metres of 
depth and 200 men to send down or lift up for each shift. 

Allowing the stages to be 0 metres distant from each other, and the 
man-engine to make fi double strokes per minute—in one minute a man 
will then have passed upon and from 0 stages, he will then have been 
lifted 6 m .00 x 6 = 36 m .00, and consequently will rise the 400 metres; 


A 


V 


l 

/ 
% 

Rt 













68 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


in = 12 minutes, in round numbers. Each double stroke thereafter 
will deliver another man at the surface, or, which is the same thing, the 
machine will lift 0 men per minute$ the 200 men will therefore arrive at 
the surface in = 34 minutes in round numbers, which, added to the 
12 minutes required for the whole ascent of the first man on the stages, 
gives in all 46 minutes ; doubling this for the lowering and lifting of one 
shift of men, and we have 02 minutes (1 hour and 32 minutes) for the 
whole, and that without either danger or fatigue. 

So that for 200 men and 400 metres of depth, the ascent by ladders 
requires 6 hours; by hoisting, varying from 1 to 4 hours; by the man- 
engine, only 1J hour. 

The fitting up of a man-engine is doubtless a considerable expense, 
but it is soon repaid by the time saved, and the prevention of muscular 
fatigue of the miner. 

DETAILS OF CONSTRUCTION. 

Tiie rods. —The rods are either made of wood or of iron, according 
to the local convenience. Iron is lighter with the same power of resist¬ 
ance, and requires less room. 

Fig. 6- Whether the rods are made of wood or of iron, they are all made 
with a decreasing section from the top to the bottom of the appa¬ 
ratus. The wooden rods are made in two ways—either of beams 
adjusted end to end, like the rods of lifting pumps, or they are made 
with planks, the ends of which are stepped together, as indicated 
in the annexed figure. (Fig. 6.) Gradually, as the load to be car¬ 
ried allows of it, a plank is left out so as to reduce the weight as 
much as possible and yet retain all the necessary solidity. 

Iron rods have been made in various forms, but generally in the 
shape of angle iron. The round or flat iron has the inconvenience 
of allowing too much vibration, especially at the bottom. 

The number of rods for each side of the man-engine may be one, 
two, three, or four. The single rod is generally used in the inclined 
shafts. It is composed of a piece of wood running on rollers at 
about six or eight metres apart. These rollers of wood or cast-iron 
are laid on sills of wood fixed in the rock. 

The stages or platforms are made of planks large enough to re¬ 
ceive both feet, and are firmly supported by iron brackets below; 
iron handles are securely fixed by bolts to the rods, at a height of 
about l m .00 to l m .30 above each stage, to enable the miner to keep 
his balance. 

Where the rods are separated by fixed ladders, as in some in¬ 
stances, the distance required to pass over from one stage to the 
other varies from 0»\65 to 0 m .75, which renders the apparatus in¬ 
commodious and even dangerous. 

Man-engines in vertical shafts always have at least two rods, bal¬ 
ancing each other. 












MINING-RAISING AND LOWERING MINERS. 


69 


Mr. Havrez, manufacturer in Belgium, and exhibitor, constructs man- 
engines with three rods in each of the lifts. 

Bods are sometimes made with the landing-stages large enough to 
carry two men at once, which permits the miners to pass each other 
with ease in going up and down, some ascending while others are de¬ 
scending. 

The landing places or stages. —The stages are made of the 
lightest wood possible, and their dimensions vary according to the space 
at command ; they should not be less than 0 m .50 to 0 .(>0 square; but 
some are made which are only 0 m .40. 

But with these small dimensions they are dangerous. These stages 
are generally put in iron frames, which serve at the same time to bind 
the rods. When two stages, one on the ascending, the other on the 
descending rod, are level with each other, the distance which separates 
them varies from 0 m .03 to 0 m .250, and even to 0 m .30. 

When the space is wide, there is danger in crossing from one stage to 
the other, for the miner may step into the empty space and be preci¬ 
pitated to the bottom. But if, on the contrary, the space is very narrow, 
the passage is very easy, but there is danger that the miner may impru¬ 
dently let his head or his shoulder project beyond the stage on which 
he is, so as to be struck or caught by the stage of the opposite rod during 
the movement. 

This difficulty is avoided in two ways—either by making the stage in 
two pieces, one fixed and the other hinged, so that it rises when it meets 
with an obstacle, or in fixing under each stage inclined planks, well 
dressed and smoothed, which push against an obstacle and force it back 
within the limits of the opposite stage. This last plan can only be used 
where the movement of the man-engine is not too rapid; if the motion 
is rapid, the first is preferable. 

The hinges of the stages are made either of copper or of very strong 
leather to avoid oxidation. In the mines of Freiberg, Saxony, the 
stages are not placed opposite each other, but side by side. 

Balance weights and pulleys.— The rods and stages work in 
guides at distances which vary from twenty to fifty metres from each 
other. But this is not sufficient. It would not be prudent to leave such 
a mass, 200 to 500 metres long, suspended without any other support. 

The whole weight is therefore balanced by what are called balance 
pulleys. They are placed two and two alongside the rods. The opposite 
rods are then connected by chains, which pass over these pulleys and 
thus sustain a part of the weight of the rods. The weight of one rod 
also counterbalances the weight of the other. Adjusting screw rods at 
the ends of the chains give tlie means of changing the length of the 
chain so as to secure the proper strain on each support or pulley. The 
arrangement of the rods, the central ladder-way, and the balance pulleys 
and chains, are shown in the annexed figure. 


70 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Fig. 7. 



The hydraulic balance has been tried for the same purpose. It is com¬ 
posed of two pistons : one is placed on the first set of lifts, the other on 
the second. To these pistons two pump-barrels correspond, connected 
with each other by a pipe giving free communication. The descending 
set of lifts taking the piston with it, forces the water into the other 
pump-barrel, and as the water has no outlet, it forces up the other piston, 
lifting the other set of lifts with it. 

The hydraulic balance would be very good if the packing of the pis¬ 
tons could be kept tight; unfortunately it cannot, water is lost, and then 
the descending piston does not transmit its pressure to the rising piston 
before some part of the stroke is lost, so that the balance is disturbed. 
It has been abandoned for this reason. When the man-engine is single- 
acting, (that is to say, where there is not more than one set of lifts and 
the other set replaced by a line of fixed stages,) the movable lift must 
be balanced to prevent the shock it would receive at the bottom by the 
impetus gained during its descent. This balance can be obtained by 
chains attached to different heights of the lift, passing them over pulleys 
attached to the rock, and attaching to their cuds counterpoises of suffi¬ 
cient weight. Such an arrangement is very dangerous from the liability 
of the chains to breakage. 

In England such pulleys are replaced by beams carrying balance 






























































































MINING—RAISING AND LOWERING MINERS. 


71 


weights; but although this arrangement is safer, it is much more expen¬ 
sive. The stroke, always a long one with a man-engine, requires beams 
of large dimensions, and they cannot be lodged in the shaft without 
making very large excavations in the rock, which are very expensive. 

Hydraulic regulators. —To regulate the descent, a hydraulic regu¬ 
lator or brake is also used. It is a pump furnished with a suction-valve, 
and the outlet of the pump is furnished with a tap. The piston of this 
pump is fixed to the shaft of the lift; when this latter rises the pump 
fills with water ; when the piston falls the water can only escape by the 
small opening, and the issue can be regulated by the tap. The rapidity 
of descent may thus be varied at will. The different contrivances we 
have just described constitute, properly speaking, the whole of a man- 
engine. It only remains to mention the different methods of putting the 
apparatus in motion. 


THE MOVEMENT OF THE MAN-ENGINE. 

Up to this time two methods have been employed—the direct-action 
engines and the ordinary steam-engine, giving rotation and the com¬ 
munication of motion by a crank. The first idea of the man-engine con¬ 
sisted in employing the pump-rod for carrying the men. Stages were 
fixed on the rod, and in connection with them fixed landing-stages. 
It is therefore natural that with this origin the first man-engines should 
have simple motive machines and cataracts. Since that time motion 
has been given to the man-engines by ordinary engines, with connecting 
rods and cranks; but as the man-engines work very slowly, several con¬ 
trivances have been used as intermediates between the rods and the 
motive power. 

When direct-acting engines are used, there is a stoppage after each 
stroke to give the miners time to pass from one stand to the other. 
This stop varies from two to eight seconds, which is ample, as the passage 
from one stand to the other does not take more than one second. This 
would be a very good system if the stop were always rigorously the same. 
But all who ha ve worked the machine with direct single action and 
cataract know that it is impossible to obtain this regularity. The irre¬ 
gularity may indeed cause accidents. The miner relying on the normal 
time of the stoppage may be surprised in the midst of the movement he 
is making, and as the single-action engine starts suddenly and very 
quickly acquires a great velocity, he may have one leg roughly taken up 
while the other remains on the stage which rapidly goes down. 

When the man-engines receive their reciprocal motion from a crank on 
a revolving shaft, there is, so to speak, no stoppage. The stages which 
approach each other are hardly on the same level when they separate 
again; but by taking care to have the machines provided with regula¬ 
tors and heavy fly-wheels, the movement is regular and there is no 
change to surprise the miner at the moment of his passage from one 
stage to the other. 


72 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Fig. 8. 


It must not be forgotten that the movement of the machine being 
uniform, that of the connecting rod which commands the man-engine is 
variable. It is very slow at the commencement of its stroke, is acceler¬ 
ated at the middle of the stroke, and becomes slow at the end. The 
miner, thanks to the regularity of the movement and the slowness of 
speed, when the stages approach the same level and separate from each 
other, can begin his passage from one rod to the other a little before the 
stroke, and continue it a little after. 

Experience proves that this second method is the safest. The persons 
who go down for the first time on these machines do not experience any dis¬ 
agreeable sensation. It is not so with the single acting machines; when, 
after the stoppage, the stage lifts or lowers a person suddenly who is not ac¬ 
customed to them, he experiences a disagreeable sensation, (a sinking at the 
stomach,) which is increased by the sudden stop at the end of the stroke. 

Man-engines worked by direct-acting engines, in order to raise the 
same number of men in a given time, must move more rapidly than when 
the motion is communicated by a crank. 

Let us suppose two man-engines, worked by these different engines, 
having a stroke of 3 m .00 and making G double strokes per minute. The 

speed per min¬ 
ute is equal to 
3 m x 12 strokes 
single = 36 m . 
T li erefore, 
while the crank 
machine will 
take GO sec¬ 
onds to go over 
these 3G m .OO, 
or a mean ve¬ 
locity of 0 ra .60, 

Working curve of the stage of a man-engine when actuated by a dou- the single-act¬ 
ing engine will 
take GO seconds 
diminished by 
12 stoppages, 
which are gen¬ 
erally of 2 J sec¬ 
onds = 30 sec¬ 
onds; its speed 
must then be 
double— l m .20. 
The diagrams 
annexed clear- 
> ly indicate the 
difference that 

exists between the working of these two methods. (Figs. 8 and 9.) 



ble acting engine. 
Fig. 9. 



10 



















MINING-RAISING AND LOWERING MINERS. 


Fig. 10. 


73 

In tlicse curves the abscisses represent the number of seconds from the 
beginning of an oscillation, and the ordinates the corresponding spaces 
passed over by a stage. 

The machine with single action predominates in Belgium, while the 
crank machine is more used in Germany and England. The single-acting 
machines are generally placed directly over the shaft. 

These engines are composed of two steam-cylinders joined together; the 
piston-rods are attached directly to the man-engine. The steam acts di¬ 
rectly and alternately underneath or above one or the other of the pistons. 

But there is an important condition to be observed, which complicates 
this arrangement a little. The platforms of the man-engines must have 
exactly the same velocity, and the strokes must terminate at exactly 
the same moment, so that both sets of platforms will be connected. 
This problem has been solved in two principal ways. 

The first consists in extending the piston-rods through the upper cover 
of the cylinders, so that these two rods may be connected by a chain work¬ 
ing over a pulley. They then necessarily move simultaneously. As a pulley 
working between the cylinders would have too small a diameter, two lead¬ 
ing pulleys are placed over the cylinders, surmounted by a larger one. 

The second method has been used at several places in Belgium by Mr. 
Hav rez, already mentioned. The construction is shown by Fig. 10. 

A strong rack is placed on 
each rod, and these work into 
opposite sides of the same pin¬ 
ion, steadied by an intermedi¬ 
ate guide rod. Uniformity of 
motion has thus been secured, 
for it is evident that when one 
rod descends, the other must 
move simultaneously and 
equally. Every precaution 
has been taken by the con- 
structor to prevent breakage. 

The teeth are strong and care¬ 
fully cut and flanged, and up 
to this time very few accidents 
have occurred. 

When a man-engine receives 
the motion from the rotation 
of a crank, the two rods must 
also be connected together to 
secure their equal motion, and 
this is the more necessary 
where there is only one engine. 

Th e i netliods o f lifting are va¬ 
ried, and we will only mention 
some of the principal ones. 

























































Fig. 11.—Arrangement for communicating motion to the rods of a Man-engine 





































































MINING—RAISING AND LOWERING MINERS. 


75 

Balance beams and varlets are worked together by a connecting* rod, 
moved by another connecting rod, taking its motion from a gearing, the 
pinion of which is placed on the main shaft of the steam-engine. 1 

Fig. 11 will give an idea of this arrangement. To avoid the great 
expense incurred by these balances, Mr. Graffin suspends the rods to 
flat cables which pass over leading pulleys and are attached to the two 
extremities of a wagon rolling on rails and worked by a connecting rod 
moved by the engine. 

An ingenious arrangement by Messrs. Vaux and Guibal has been tried, 
but its utility has not yet been established by practice; but it is never¬ 
theless worthy of being noticed. 

Two cylinders are placed above the rods, as in the direct-acting engines. 
The engine gives motion to a strong pump without valves, which alter¬ 
nately forces and draws water from the cylinders over the shaft of the 
mine, thus alternately raising and lowering the pistons attached to the 
rods of the man-engine. The result is an alternate and opposed action 
of the rods. This plan would be excellent if the loss of water could be 
prevented. 

The force required for the action of the man-engine varies from ten to 
fourteen horse-power for 100 metres of height. So far as our knowledge 
extends, the strokes have never exceeded four metres, except in an appa¬ 
ratus which was designed for extraction as well as for a man-engine, but 
which was abandoned, and in another very ingenious apparatus by Mr. 
Colson, of which a brief notice will be added. 

Instead of making the rods of a continuous piece for the whole depth 
of the mine shaft, which requires them to be strong enough at the top to 
carry the whole weight of the apparatus, Mr. Colson divides them into 
a certain number of small shafts, suspended by chains to pulleys, bal¬ 
ancing themselves two and two. These isolated rods are much lighter 
than in the other construction. The principal rod, extending down the 
whole depth of the mine, binds the small shafts together, without sup¬ 
porting them; therefore its strength must be proportioned only to the 
strain it has to overcome, which is very little, compared with the strain 
in the man-engines with continuous rods. Mr. Colson gives a stroke of 
ten metres, which he obtains by the alternate winding and unwinding of 
two cables. 

The velocity of movement until now, except in the Colson machine, 
has never exceeded fifty metres per minute. The cost of construction 
varies considerably, according to the construction, and above all, accord¬ 
ing to the price of materials and labor in different countries. It varies 
between seventy-five to two hundred francs a metre for a depth of 200 
to 500 metres. The engines made recently are nearer the lesser price, 
and hardly exceed the sum of 100 francs per metre. 

Special and detailed descriptions of this apparatus will be found in the 
following named works, from which a part of the information herein 
given has been taken : 

1 In Freiberg tin; Falirkunst is operated by water-power. 


76 


rAEIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Portefeuille de Cockerill; Zeitschrift des cesterreicliisclien Ingenieur- 
Vereins, 10 tcr Jalirgang; Annales des Travaux Publics de Belgique, vols. 
4 and 0; Annales des Mines de France, 5 me , vol. xv; Revue UniveTselle, 


vols. iv, v, vi, xiv, xvi. 


PARACHUTES. 


The great depths to which mining operations are now carried; the 
increased rapidity of movement of the cages, (often as great as thirty 
and forty feet in a second,) and the paramount obligation to protect the 
lives of the miners who often ascend and descend by the cages, has led 
to the adoption of a variety of contrivances for arresting the fall of cages 
in the event of the breakage of the cables by which they are suspended. 
Such contrivances are known as parachutes. 

The great velocity of hoisting requires the cages to be guided in the 
shafts by vertical tracks, which are commonly constructed of wood, 
though of late they are being replaced by iron and steel; these tracks, 
called guides , being continuous and equidistant along the path of the 
cage, furnish a foundation upon which the various parachutes can act to 
sustain the cage in the event of breakage. 

A large number of patents relating to this important and indispensa¬ 
ble apparatus have been taken out, but it may be said that there are only 
three plans, and that these originate from the same principle—levers 
drawn up and inward by the traction of the cable, and in an opposite direc¬ 
tion by the tension of a spring which tends to throw the levers outward 
upon the guides, so as to press upon or into them with a force capable 
of stopping the fall of the cage in case of the rupture of the cable. 

All parachutes combined and constructed on this principle have given 
satisfactory results, and it may be said that, if the security obtained is 
not complete and absolute, they have, nevertheless, rendered such great 
services that their application has become a question of humanity, which 
cannot be ignored. The following figures will speak in a stronger and 
more peremptory manner than any description can to persuade miners 
and engineers to adopt parachutes in their mines. At the mines of 
Anzin, from 1851 to 1859, 1 in fourteen shafts supplied with parachutes, 
twenty-nine cable ruptures occurred, after which parachutes were adopted 
and saved the lives of one hundred and fifty men. What can be more 
eloquent and more persuasive than this fact"? 

At the mines of Blanzy the experience has been similar, and it is proba¬ 
ble that if an account had been taken of all the accidents by the rupture 
of cables in Europe since parachutes came into use, it would show that 
the men who have been thus saved from certain death can be numbered 
by thousands. 

In order that a parachute should act well, it is necessary that the 
strength of the spring should be equal to 150 kilogrammes, (300 pounds,) 


1 Bn rat, Materiel des fiouilleres. 





MINING—PARACHUTES. 


77 


and then the weight of the cage makes the rest; and the heavier that 
weight the more energetic is the grasp on the guides. 

As ve ha\e said before, there are three types, viz: 

1. The pin achute icitli claws , which acts by a pressure exerted upon 
the guides and tending to penetrate them longitudinally. 

1 he pen achute with eccentrics , which acts by a pressure exerted lat- 
erall} on the faces ot the guides, and perpendicularly to the plane 
which passes through both their axes. 

3. The wedge parachute, which acts by means of a set of metallic jaws 
taking hold of the guide, which is made wedge-shaped. This parachute 
gives a lateral pressure exercised upon the faces of each guide, and per¬ 
pendicularly to the plane of the parachute. 

These several types will be considered one after the other. 


FONTAINE’S CLAW PARACHUTE. 


The Fig. 12 represents Fontaine’s parachute with claws. It is the 
oldest, and was constructed and put in use at the mines of Anzin, and 
may be said to have originated with this company. At first this para¬ 
chute was supplied with only one spring, but two are now used, as shown 
by the drawing. It was the type exhibited in Class 47, upon the two- 
story cage sent by the company of Anzin. 


Fig. 12. 



The two stout levers or claws are armed with sharp steel points, and 
are so placed in the frame that when the cage is suspended in the shaft 


































































78 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


by the cable, these claws are drawn up so as not to touch the guides. 
Two strong spiral springs, replaced in some parachutes by steel elliptic 
springs, are placed below, and in the event of the breaking of the cable 
they draw down the upper ends of the claws, and the lower and steel¬ 
armed ends are forced outward into contact with the wooden guides, 
penetrating and sometimes splitting them. The cage is thus arrested in 
its fall, and is sustained entirely by the wedging of these claws against 
the guides and timbers of the shaft. This construction has given satis¬ 
factory results in saving the lives of men, but the claws injure or destroy 
the guides. It also necessitates the use of very heavy timbers for the 
guides and their supports, inasmuch as pressure from the claws is ex¬ 
erted in one direction, and if the guides should yield or bend outward 
the effect would be lost. The first cost of such heavy guides and timber¬ 
ing is very great, and any accident by destroying a portion of the guides 
requires a great expenditure for repairs. 


AUDEMAR’S PARACHUTE. 

In order to avoid these difficulties other constructions have been de¬ 
vised; one by Mr. Audemar, engineer in the service of the mining com¬ 
pany at Blanzy, is shown by Figs. 13 and 14. It consists of four eccen- 


Fig. 13. 



Audemarts Parachute. 



















































MINING-PARACHUTES. 


79 


Fig. 14. 



trie wedges, two on each side, and placed on opposite sides of the guides ; 
the release of the springs by the breaking of the cable causes these 
eccentrics to turn and to powerfully squeeze the guides, and thus stop 
the descent of the cage. This parachute is as certain in its action as 
that of Fontaine, and does not split the guides. The guides and the 
framework may also be made much lighter, for there is no outward 
thrust or pressure tending to bend or break the timber. 

The spiral springs used by Mr. Audemar are made of steel wire 0 m .01 
in diameter. When fully expanded they are 0 m .39 long, (nearly 10 
inches,) and they may be condensed to a length of 0 m .25; but in order to 
preserve their full elasticity, the springs are condensed from 0 m .09 to 
0 m .ll only. A compression of 0 m .09 is sufficient, and this gives a re¬ 
sistance of 180 kilogrammes, (about 300 pounds.) Motion is communi¬ 
cated from the springs to the eccentrics by means of arms and levers, as 
shown in the figures. Fig. 13 shows the position of these arms and the 
eccentrics when the cage is suspended by the cable; and Fig. 11 shows 
their position when the strain from the cable is released and the springs 
are expanded. The spiral springs are contained in cylindrical boxes, 
one part sliding over the other. One of these boxes and the spring are 
shown in section in Fig. 14. 


MICII AT’S PAR AC HUTE. 

A variety of the same type as the Blanzy construction was exhibited 

































































80 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


by a model in the French section, designed by Mr. Michat. The construc¬ 
tion is shown with sufficient clearness by Fig. 15, appended, and a de¬ 
scription is unnecessary. It is evident that it does not differ essentially 
from the parachute just described. 



Michat’s Parachute. 


* lg. 


16 . 



Braune’s Parachute. 


BRAUNE’S PARACHUTE. 

Fig. 10 indicates a third variety of the same type, but it differs from 
the others by its extreme simplicity and the nature of the spring. This 
apparatus was exhibited in Class 47 of the Prussian section, and origin¬ 
ated with Mr. Braune, the chief engineer of the mines of the Vieille 
Montague Company. Instead of steel springs he uses an india-rubber 
band spring. It has been in use for the last three years with satisfac¬ 
tory results, but we regard it as designed for the protection of the mate¬ 
rial of the shaft, rather than for the safety of the men, and we should 
hesitate to apply it to cages used for the ascent and descent of miners. 
It has been used chiefly in mines where the loads to be lifted are not so 
heavy as those raised from collieries. 


PARACHUTE WITH WEDGES. 


The third type of parachute is constructed with wedges. It may be 
called a parachute with claws, in which the latter are replaced by a 
metallic jaw, in the form of a hollow wedge, fitting to the form of the 
guide, which is made wedge-shaped. When the parachute with the cage 
is sustained by the cable, the jaw moves along the guide without touch¬ 
ing it; but if a rupture occurs, it then presses upon the guide in such a 
manner that the jaws wedge powerfully, and arrest the descent of the 

















































MINING - PARACHUTES. 



cage within a distance of only 0 m .2o or 0 m .30. The action is thus very 
prompt, but it is so gradual that there is no perceptible shock. 

This construction does not injure the guides, and it has the advantage 
over the parachutes of the second type that iron guides may be used, 
the reduced size of which is much less cumbersome in shafts than, heavy 
timbers. It, however, requires the guides to be made with great accu¬ 
racy, and uniform in size and angle of the wedge, and the difficulty of 
obtaining them has prevented this construction of parachute from 
coming into general use. 


In conclusion, it may be observed that although parachutes cannot be 
said to have reached perfection, (there certainly being great room for 
improvement,) they have rendered the greatest service in mining opera¬ 
tions, have prevented great losses of life and property, and should be 
attached to every mining cage in use. 


6 M 



















































. 

S' 





















III.--MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF 

ORES. 


CHAPTER V. 

ORE-CRUSHING AND ORE-DRESSING MACHINERY 

AND PROCESSES. 


Introductory notice of the condition of the art—Substitution of iron for 

WOOD IN ORE-DRESSING MACHINES—ORE-BREAKING AND CRUSHING MACHINES — 

Blake’s rock-breaker, its construction and operation—Crushing by roll¬ 
ers—Stamp-mills—Rittinger’s improved stamp-mill—Iron-stem stamps—Ore- 
dressing MACHINERY AND PROCESSES—MACHINES FOR CLASSIFYING OR SIZING 
CRUSHED ORES—TREATMENT OF STAMP StUFF—WASHING BY SIEVES AND JIGS— 

Separation of ores by falling through a column of water—Slime separa¬ 
tors—Shaking tables and circular buddles—Chain elevators—Conclusion. 

INTRODUCTION. 


The art of ore-dressing, or the separation, cleansing, and concentra¬ 
tion of minerals and ores by mechanical means, has made great progress 
within the last twenty years. It is an art which has occupied the atten¬ 
tion of government mining engineers and practical men in all mining 
countries, but particularly in Austria, France, Prussia, Saxony, and in 
Great Britain and the United States. Not only have great improve¬ 
ments and modifications been made in machines and processes long in 
use, and many new and important machines been invented, but the con¬ 
struction of all machinery for these purposes has been carried to a great 
degree of accuracy and perfection. This was shown in a striking man¬ 
ner by the exhibits in this class at the Exposition. These exhibits com¬ 
prised some of the most important and interesting of the modern 
machines, of full size and in operation, together with models and draw¬ 
ings of others. It Avas evident that with these improved machines it is 
possible to obtain economical results of great importance, and to a great 
extent to supersede hand labor in ore-dressing, and at the same time to 
perform the work better and with greater rapidity, so that rough ores 
which Avere formerly too poor to be worked can now be concentrated 
with profit. 

The tAvo most prominent exhibitors Avere Mr. P. de Rittinger, of Aus¬ 
tria, and Messrs. Huet and Geyler, of France. The machinery iioav in use 
in the United States and in Australia was not represented. To each of 
the above-mentioned exhibitors gold medals were awarded for their 
respective machines. The materials used by these exhibitors in the con¬ 
struction of their apparatus are quite different. Rittinger’s machines 
were made of Avood and iron; those of Huet and Geyler, of metal alone. 
The choice of materials for the construction of such machines depends 



84 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


upon the relative cost of the materials at the place of manufacture, and 
upon the conditions under which the machines are to be used. At the 
Austrian and Hungarian mines wood is abundant and cheap, and is used 
in construction almost to the exclusion of iron. In Paris, however, the 
reverse is the case, and Messrs. Huet and Geyler have excluded wood from 
all the machines which they manufacture. It is claimed by these con¬ 
structors, also, that iron is much better than wood for all ore-dressing 
machinery for several reasons, which are enumerated at considerable 
length by them in a memoir upon the mechanical preparation of ores. 1 
They urge that although wooden machines may be made with the great¬ 
est accuracy and care, they are no sooner put into place for work than 
they begin to swell and warp, and in the case of a circular buddle, for 
example, the whole surface must be made anew. Then, if for any cause 
the operation of such machines is suspended for a time, the wood dries and 
shrinks, and when they are again set in operation they are always found to 
be out of order, and to require extensive repairs. Another important 
objection to wood is the great bulk of the machines made of it as com¬ 
pared with those made of iron of equal strength. Again, wooden machines 
do not bear transportation to distant regions, neither are they so durable 
or so exact and regular in their operation as machines made of iron. 

With cast iron the most favorable forms can be given to those parts 
with which the stuff to be worked comes in contact. All unfavorable 
angles and joints can be avoided. The constructors say that with iron 
and cast iron the forms of machines, and of their various parts, recog¬ 
nized in practice as the most favorable to the end in view can be adopted. 
The joints being perfectly tight, the loss of earth, water, or ore is pre¬ 
vented. No change of form in the machines, or any injury to them, 
need be feared by their exposure to either dryness or moisture. If they 
are required to remain unused for a greater or less time, or if they have 
to be transported to a great distance, they are not injured. Changes of 
season or climate do not affect such machines. During the severity of 
winter, the taps being opened and the tubs and pipes being drained of 
water, the hardest frosts will not injuriously affect them. 

These advantages, and the necessity for machines that can be trans¬ 
ported to distant regions unchanged, has already been recognized in the 
United States. Iron lias for several years past been extensively substi¬ 
tuted for wood in the construction of stamps, batteries, and concen¬ 
trating machines in California and Nevada. Most of the concentrating 
machines and batteries now in use in California, Nevada, Idaho, and North¬ 
ern and Western Mexico are made of cast iron. When such machines 
(made in San Francisco) arrive at their destination, they can be set up 
and put in operation at once, without requiring alteration or repairs. 

Without attempting in this report to consider the whole subject of the 
mechanical preparation of ores, or the principles involved, we shall briefly 

•Memoire sur l’ou tillage nouveau et les modifications apportees dans les proeddds 
d’enricliissement des minerals; par Messrs, Huet et Geyler, Ingdnieurs, anciens dleves 
de lTcole Centrale, Paris, 1866, 





MINING—MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


85 


describe some of tlie most important of the machines brought to the 
notice ot the public at the Exposition, and note incident ally some others, in 
order to give, as far as possible within the limits of this report, a connected 
view of the art of ore-dressing. We shall thus successively consider— 

1. Machines for breaking and pulverizing ores; 

2. Sorting or classification of the fragments and fine materials. 

I.—MACHINES FOR BREAKING AND PULVERIZING ORES. 

BLAKE’S ROCK-BREAKER. 

The preliminary breaking or crushing of large masses of ore is now 
effected, to a great extent, in Europe and the United States by means 
of the machine known as Blake’s rock-breaker, the invention of Eli 
Whitney Blake, of New Haven, Connecticut. Two machines of this kind 
were exhibited in the French section by Messrs. Huet and Geyler, who 
manufacture under the patent in France. The general construction of 
this machine has been rendered familiar by numerous figures and publi¬ 
cations in the United States and in Europe. It consists, essentially, of 
a strong iron frame, supporting upright convergent iron jaws, actuated 
by a revolving shaft. The stones or masses of ore to be broken are 
dropped between these jaws, and a short reciprocating or vibratory 
motion being given to one or both of them, the stones are crushed, and 
drop lower and lower in the converging or wedge-shaped space, until 
they are sufficiently broken to drop out at the bottom. The size of the 
broken fragments may be regulated by increasing or diminishing the 
size of this opening between the jaws. 

The type of the machine made in France is the same as that gener¬ 
ally used in England, and differs from the common construction in this 
respect: that the lever is dispensed with, and the pitman from the eccen¬ 
tric shaft or crank operates directly upon the toggles. A few machines 
of this pattern have been made in California. The arrangement of the 
parts is shown by the section, Fig. 17. The mouth of this machine, as 
constructed by Huet & Geyler, is expanded, hopper-like, so as to be 
more convenient for the reception of the masses to be broken. This may 
be a desirable addition in some cases, where comparatively small stuff 
is to be broken and is to be shoveled in from a floor lower than the 
mouth of the machine; but when the mouth is placed, as it should be, 
on a level with the floor of the dump pile, the hopper is not required. 

The rock-breaker may be successfully used instead of stamps to obtain 
either coarse or line fragments suited to concentration. Messrs. Huet and 
Geyler seek to increase the fineness of the product of the machine by 
placing an u obturator” or obstruction, such as a triangular bar of iron, 
under the outlet between the jaws, arranging it so that it can be raised 
or lowered by means of screws, so as to diminish or increase the size of 
the outlet for the delivery of the crushed stuff. The effect of this 
obstruction is to retain the stuff between the jaws until it is so much 
broken and comminuted that it will sift through the narrow slits left on 


86 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Fig. 17. 



Blake’s Rock-breaker. 


each side of the bar. This method of operating is successful with some 
materials, but involves a considerable expenditure of power, and it is 
attended with some danger to the machine. 

The fragments of ores produced by rock-breakers are better adapted, 
in size and shape, to washing and concentration by jigging than those 
from rollers and stamps. With hard and silicious rocks the breakers 
work dry, but when the ores are argillaceous, and are inclined to pack, 
it is necessary to employ a large quantity of water in order to obtain the 
best results. 

Crushing by rollers. —A modification of the well-known Cornish 
crusher was exhibited by Messrs. Huet and Geyler. They substitute 
springs of vulcanized rubber for the lever counterpoise usually employed 
to keep the surface of the rolls in contact. With springs, the resist¬ 
ance increases as the rolls become more and more widely separated 
by the stuff to be crushed. These rollers were beautifully made, and 
worked very well. They were geared together, but were driven by a 
belt. 


Stamps.— There were two exhibitors of stamp-mills—one from Sweden, 
a wooden model showing the ordinary construction; the other by Mr. de 
Bittinger, of Austria, also a model. This last showed some interesting 
modifications of ordinary stamp-batteries, intended to increase the de¬ 
livery of crushed stuff through the grates in wet crushing. 

Rittinger’s battery.— The general construction of the battery is 
the same as in common use in Europe, with this difference, that a 
water-box is adapted to the front of the grates so that they are 




































MINING—MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


87 


Fig. 18. 



Grate. 
Water box. 
Escape pipe. 


are wholly or partly immersed in 
water, as shown in the accompa¬ 
nying drawing, Fig. 18. The 
swash and strong currents pro¬ 
duced by the fall of the stamps 
wash both faces of the grates 
and keep the openings clean and 
free, so that the stuff;' passes more 
rapidly, while, at the same time, 
a delivery or escape-pipe, lead¬ 
ing from the bottom of the water- 
box considerably below the level 
of the water in the mortar, deter¬ 
mines a strong and constant cur¬ 
rent through the meshes of the 
grates outward. An increase of 
the product, with a diminution in 
the amount of slime, is claimed 
to be the result of this construc¬ 
tion. The crushed stuff passes off 
with the water through the es¬ 
cape pipe, and the amount of wa¬ 
ter required is less than in the 
ordinary construction. Rittinger's improved Stamps. 

Iron-stem stamps. —Some iron-stem stamps, with cast-iron frames 
and mortars, have been made by Messrs. Huet and Geyler for the mill at 
the mines of Serena, in Estramadura, Spain. The stamps do not revolve, 
and the cams work through the center of the stem,'and not upon a cylin¬ 
drical tappet surrounding a revolving stem, as in the California batteries. 

II.—ORE-DRESSING MACHINERY AND PROCESSES. 

MACHINES FOR CLASSIFYING OR SIZING CRUSHED ORES. 

In the mechanical concentration of ores a proper classification or sizing 
of the particles is one of the principal elements of success. It must not 
be carried to a great extreme, or be performed too roughly. A great 
variety of forms and combinations of sieves, screens, and trommels are 
used for the separation of the coarse .from the fine particles. 

Trommels.— Messrs. Huet and Geyler exhibited a classifying trommel 
which is in some respects novel in its arrangement. It is not supported 
upon a shaft passing through from end to end, but it is sustained by, and 
revolves on, trunnions at each end, as shown by Fig. 19, which is a sec¬ 
tional representation of a distributing trommel constructed so as to 
supply a system of four twin sieves. This trommel was in operation in 
the annexe of Glass 47. 

The crushed stuff is introduced by the hollow trunnion A, and falls 
upon a grate or iron plate E, perforated with large holes. The stuff which 







































































88 PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 



Fig. 19. 


passes this plate falls upon a second plate C, with finer holes, where 

it is again divided, and the finer 
parts pass through to the outer 
plate of all. Each compartment 
has suitable openings at inter¬ 
vals in the annular crown at the 
end for the delivery of the dif¬ 
ferent grades of stuff. With 
this apparatus four grades are 
usually obtained. 

Perforated iron plates.— 
Perforated iron plates are now 
generally used instead of wire 
screens, which wear out too 
quickly. It is essential to the 
best working effect that the 
thickness of perforated plates 
Section of a Distributing Trommel. should always be less than the 
diameter of the holes punched in them. The space, also, between the 
holes in the finer plates should not be greater than the diameter of the 
holes, and in the medium plates half a diameter, and in the coarser 
plates one-third of the diameter of the holes. In France, perforations 
less than 0 m .002 in diameter are considered as fine; those between 
0 m .002 and 0 m .005 are medium. The fine numbers begin at 0 m .0005. The 
finely-perforated plates for trommels are generally made of copper, and 
the other sizes of steel. 

Some of the best exhibits of metal plates that we observed were made 
by Mr. Deny and by Mr.Callard, of Paris, and by Henry Foulon, of Liege, 
Belgium. In the United States section samples of perforated iron plates 
of different grades, such as are used for battery screens in stamp-mills 
in crushing gold-bearing quartz, were shown by the Union Iron Works 
of San Francisco, through J. S. Detrick. 


TREATMENT OF STAMP STUFF—WASHING BY SIEVES AND JJGS. 

The simple hand-sieve is the most ancient form of apparatus for sorting 
and concentrating ores in water, and it is still in use. Numerous modifi¬ 
cations have been made from time to time, with the object of increasing 
the product by increasing the size of the sieve and supporting it in a 
frame, as in the haml-jig or brake-sieve, the construction of which is fa¬ 
miliar, and by substituting machine power for that of the hand. Much 
attention has also been directed to the construction of automatic, or con¬ 
tinuously working, jigs, by which the stuff to be washed enters in a con¬ 
stant stream, and, after being washed and concentrated, is delivered in 
two separate portions, without stopping or requiring manipulation. 

In such machines the sieves, instead of being alternately plunged into 
and raised out of a vessel of water, are made stationary—are fixed firmly 
in a tub—and the water is made to alternately rise and fall, so as to pass 







































MIXING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


89 


Fig. 20. 


in a strong current through the meshes of the sieve and the layer of ore 
above it. This motion of the water is produced by means of plungers 
or pistons acting below the sieve, either vertically or horizontally, or by 
elastic diaphragms, (as in Petlierick’s separator at Fowey Consols, 1831, )* 
which are alternately pushed out and in, as, for example, also in Edwards 
and Beaeher’s patent mineral and coal-washing machine. 

In France 
some of the 
earliest auto* 
matic sieve 
washing ma¬ 
chines were 
designed for 
washing coaly 
as in that of 


Berard and o T 
Menier, the 
general ar¬ 


rangement of 
which is seen 
bv Fig-. 20. 



Berard and Menier Coal-washing Machine. 


In 1855 Messrs. Huet and 
Geyler constructed an auto¬ 
matic machine with a valve 
in the center of the sieve, 
through which the concen¬ 
trated stuff could be deliv¬ 
ered. Although the first 
trials were not successful, 
the results were sufficient to 
encourage further efforts. 
The great difficulty was that, 
after the concentration had 
been effected upon the grate, 
opening the valve caused 
such a current that the waste 
stuff* was carried down with 
the rich material. To pre¬ 
vent this difficulty the engi¬ 
neers of the Harz—Mr. Vo¬ 
gel, of Joachimstlial, and V 
Mr. Wimmer, of Clausthal— 

' 'z jp* 

invented an arrangement k~_ 
shown by Fig. 21. 


Fig. 21. 



v N -■ :->ycv. 


Wimmer’s Continuously-working Jig. 

The central outlet for the rich stuff is covered by a tube d, supported 


1 Ure’s Dictionary, supplement, p. 852. 



















































































































































90 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


from a bar of wood above and reaching down through the layer of poor 
stuff so low that only the heavy and richer portions resting directly 
upon or near the sieve can pass downward into the discharge pipe b f. 
This pipe is alternately opened and closed at the top by an iron stop¬ 
per placed at the end of a vertical rod the upper part of which slides 
through a supporting ring g. By means of an arm i, supported on a 
pivot at A*, the stopper is alternately raised and lowered as the piston 
P rises and falls. The opening in the discharge pipe is thus opened when 
the piston descends, and is closed when it ascends. 1 It has been found 
in practice, however, that this arrangement for opening and closing the 
discharge pipe does not give satisfactory results, and it has been aban¬ 
doned. A similar machine, in use in the Harz, has a perforated cylinder 
d surrounding the outlet in the sieve, and the bottom of the hutch is in¬ 
clined toward a central orifice, so that it becomes self-discharging. The 
general construction is shown by Figs. 22 and 23. From five to six 

Fig. 22. Fig. 23. 




Self-discharging Jig—Harz. 

cubic metres of stamp stuff can be passed through this apparatus in 
twelve hours. 


1 Vide La Preparation Mdcanique des Minerais au Harz en 1857. Rapport par M. Au<-\ 
Gillon; Paris, 1858. 














































































































MINING- MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


91 


C ONTINUOUSLY- 



24. 


working jig, Harz.— 
Iii 1803 Mr. Geyer, an 
engineer from Baden, 
introduced continuous¬ 
ly-working jigs into the 
great ore-dressing es¬ 
tablishment erected by 
him on the banks of the 
Lalin. In the construc¬ 
tion of these machines 
both wood and metal 
were employed. The ar¬ 
rangement of the parts 
is represented by Figs. 
24 and 25. It is a dou¬ 
ble machine, composed 
of two grates and two 
pistons, acting simulta¬ 
neously. The grates are 
inclined forward, and 
are provided with a 
chink or gutter at the 
lower edge, through 
which the concentrated 
ore falls into inclined 
troughs c. The stuff 
passes from one grate 
to another, and thus 
two different grades of 
fineness may be se¬ 
cured. Iron plates or 
partitions are placed so 
as to govern the dis¬ 
charge, and these may 
be raised or lowered at 
pleasure by the thumb¬ 
screws e e. These ma¬ 
chines, worked at sev¬ 
enty strokes per min¬ 
ute, will wash about 
nine cubic metres of 
stamp stuff, diameter 
of 0 m .005, in a day, and 
they require about 300 
litres of water. 



Fig. 25. 

































































































































































92 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Eittinger’s self-acting jig.— One of tlie most interesting machines 
of this class was exhibited in the Austrian section, and is the invention 
of Eittinger. It is represented by Fig. 20, and is characterized by the 



Fi „ 26 . inclination of the grates 

and the lowness of the 


front partition, over 
which the poor and 
lighter stuff falls con¬ 
tinuously, and with very 
little water, while the 
heavier and richer por¬ 
tions fall through the 
opening or slit o, at the 
base of the partition. 
This partition is the 
segment of a cylinder, 
and is supported upon 
the lever or arm d, so 
as to be movable back 
and forth in such a 
manner that the open¬ 
ing or slit o may be in¬ 
creased or diminished 
at pleasure. The heavy stuff passing through the opening falls into the 
box K, from which it is removed as required. The inclination of the 
grate in this machine is from five to eight degrees. It is fed through the 
hopper B, which plunges below the surface of the stuff accumulated on 
the grate. The loss of water which occurs at each stroke of the piston 
is replaced from a reservoir W, at the back of the apparatus. Accord¬ 
ing to Eittinger, experience has shown that the duty of selfacting ma¬ 
chines of this kind is generally three times as great as that from the 
ordinary intermittent working apparatus. 


RittingePs Self-acting Jig. 


Huet and Geyler’s self-acting jig. —Most self-acting jigs require 
a large quantity of water, and this in many localities is a great objection 
to their use. Messrs. Huet and Geyler exhibited several jigs designed 
to work with but little loss of water, and, at the same time, by the aid 
of an automatic scraper, to increase the product of the machine. These 
jigs are constructed entirely of iron, and have the form shown in Fig. 27. 

The tub is shaped like the letter U, and is divided into two compart¬ 
ments, one for the piston and the other for the working grate. Water 
is supplied through the valve A, at the side, and the fine stuff or slime 
which falls through the sieve settles upon the bottom, and is discharged 
through an opening B, controlled by a lever reaching out to the front of 
the apparatus. The piston is operated by means of a shaft and crank, 
which works in an inclined slide C, connected with a lever carrying the 
piston, so as to give a rapid descending stroke with a period of rest at 


















































































MINING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 

Fig. 27 . 


93 



Automatic Jig of Huet & Geyler. 


Fig. 28. 


tlie bottom, and then a slow upward movement; thus giving the most 
favorable conditions for the rapid and perfect separation of the stuff 
upon the grate. 

The motion of the piston may be varied at will, in order to secure the 
best flow or motion of the water for different grades of ore. This adjust¬ 
ment is effected by shifting the position of the head of the piston along 
the lever or arm, and by this means increasing or diminishing the ampli¬ 
tude of its motion. The construction of this slide is shown in the figure. 
By turning the fixed, screw s s, Fig. 

28, the head of the piston may be 
moved forward or backward. 

The machine is provided with a 
scraper R, Fig. 28, actuated by the 
long rod I), which is attached to an 
eccentric on the main shaft and 
moves the levers E and F, giving 
to the scraper a forward and back¬ 
ward motion over the top of the 
stuff upon the grate, and throw- 



A 





o 




A. 


iiig out a portion of it at each movement. The path of the scraper is 
determined by the guides G, attached to each side of the tub. It can 
be varied by means of screws upon the lever or arm F. In passing 
backward, the roller or projection on the scraper, which follows the 
guides, rises upon the movable inclined plane G, and on its return passes 
below this plane, following the double dotted line in the figure. The 
















































































































94 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


poor stuff from the top, which is constantly thrown forward and off by 
this scraper, falls over the front of the tub at E, along the shute M. The 
grate is inclined as in the machine of Eittinger, and the opening for the 
escape of the heavier and rich portion is similarly placed at the foot of 
the incline and just below the bridge over which the poor stuff is scraped. 
The opening is shown at H. It is closed by a valve which extends 
along the whole front edge of the sieve, and can be opened and closed 
at pleasure by a lever. The stuff passing through this valve falls into 
a receptacle K, from which it may be removed at pleasure through the 
opening L. The scraper is so made of perforated sheet-iron that it does 
not throw the water out together with the waste. These jigs are made 
with great care and accuracy, and work in a satisfactory manner. 

SEPARATION OF ORES BY FALLING THROUGH A COLUMN OF WATER. 

Various forms of apparatus have been devised to effect the separation 
of the grains of either coarse or line stamp stuff having nearly the same 
volume, but differing in density, by allowing them to fall through a 
column of water either at rest or in motion. Such machines may be re¬ 
garded as modifications of the jig ; a greater length of fall of the mate¬ 
rials in water being substituted for a succession of short falls, the result 
of the repeated shocks or jerks given to the sieve. Apparatus of this 
kind forms a connecting link between jigs and the slime separators. 
Tin •ee different forms of this apparatus were shown at the Exposi¬ 
tion, viz: 

1. The apparatus of Mr. Hundt, engineer from Baden. 2. The appa¬ 
ratus of Mr. de Eittinger. 3. The apparatus of Huet and Geyler. 

Hundt’s apparatus. —This was exhibited in the Prussian section, 

Class 47. Mr. Hundt, who has had large experience in the separation 

Fig. 29. 































































































































MINING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


95 


Fig. 30. 


of coal, states that lie has obtained excellent results with this machine. 
It was first put into operation at the mills of the Landerkrone mines, 
near Wilnsdorf, in July, 18G4. 

Rittinger’s apparatus.— The construction is shown by Fig’. 29. It 
consists of a stationary wooden tub aa, the bottom of which is divided into 
eight conical compartments connecting with pipes c, which, after descend¬ 
ing for a short distance into the foundation, turn upward and outward, and 
are curved at the end so as to deliver the water from the tub into an annular 
trough d. A double cylinder//, supported by a shaft g, is made to turn in 
the tub a. The stuff to be separated is delivered in a constant stream 
through the hopper and distributor 1: into the revolving cylinder, and fall¬ 
ing through the water in this space is sorted and collected in the conical re¬ 
servoirs and tubes b. A branch tube, closed by valves s ,s*, permits the re¬ 
moval of this concentrated stuff from time to time. The waste stuff deliver¬ 
ed through the tubes b into the annular trough d, flows into another trough 
or conduit m, whence it is lifted by the wheel n, and returned to the tub a. 

Apparatus of Huet & Gey- 
ler. —This was shown in the 
French section, and consists of 
two stationary concentric cylin- 
ders, about three feet long—(Fig. 

30, E and 1.) The outer cylinder 
is terminated at the bottom by 
a movable cone C, with an outlet 
in the center. A rotating tub B 
is divided into compartments, and 
is so placed under the aperture 
of the cylinders, that it receives 
the stuff that falls from them. 

The stuff for separation is dropped 
at intervals into the hopper¬ 
shaped top of the cylinder I, and, 
in falling through the column of 
water, is separated according to 
the difference of the specific grav¬ 
ities. The revolution of the re¬ 
ceiving tub B must correspond in 
time to the time required for the 
descent of the different grades 
of the stuff. The level of the 
water in the apparatus is main¬ 
tained by a supply pipe T, and 
any excess of water overflows by 
the gutter G around the top of 
the outer cylinder. The same 
water may be used over and over 
by pumping it from the bottom 



Huet & Geyler’s Separator. 














































PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


96 


of the apparatus. It is essential that the stuff should be well sized 
before it enters the apparatus. 

The following tabular statement shows the time required for the fall 
of stamp stuff* of different minerals, and of different diameters: 


Size of the 
gravel 

iu millimetres. 

Galena, 
gravity 7. 56. 

Pyrites, 
gravity 4. 60 
to 5. 00. 

Barytes, 
gravity 4. 50. 

Blende, 
gravity 4.15. 

Quartz, 
gravity 2 70. 

Carbonate of 
lime, 

gravity 2. 60. 

From 

to 

Seconds. 

Seconds. 

Seconds. 

Seconds. 

Seconds. 

Seconds. 

30. oo 

18. 00 

0. 90 




2. 36 


18. 00 

7. 00 

1.11 




3. 67 


7. 00 

5. 50 

1. 50 




4. 61 


5. 30 

4. 44 

1. 84 




6. 10 


4. 44 

4. 17 

2. 03 

2.54 

2.81 

2. 88 

7.27 

3. 86 

3. 94 

3. 07 

2. 48 

3.43 

3. 73 

4.61 

7.61 

5. 56 

2. 77 

2. 50 

3.11 

4.41 

5.55 

6. 53 


6. 83 

1. 77 

1.50 

4.14 

6.21 

8.30 

9. 78 


10.17 


1. 00 

5. 27 

10. 36 

11.33 

11. 67 

14. 64 

17. 21 


This table shows that the velocity of the receiving tub must be pro¬ 
portioned to the size of the particles of the stuff to be separated and to 
the height of the fall. For a height of l m .00, the number of revolu¬ 
tions of the tub per minute must be, for particles of 0 m .016 in diameter 
21 revolutions; 0 m .004,11 revolutions; 0 m .001, G revolutions; 0 m .00025, 
2.7 revolutions. 

This apparatus lias not yet been long enough in practical operation to 
prove its value, and it requires to be studied and experimented with 
further before the results will be satisfactory, yet it has already been 
found that a thorough classification of the stuff is essential; that the 
feeding and the motion of the rotating tub must be regular; that the 
grains which separate best are those between 0^.004 and 0 m .01 in 
diameter; and that with fine stuff the results are incomplete. When 
the particles are 0 ni .014 in diameter and have a density of 3.15, they 
will precipitate from compartment to compartment in the following 
order: 

First compartment.density, 4.2; 7 per cent. 

Second compartment .... density, 3.2 ; 52 per cent. 

Third compartment.density, 2.9 ; 24 per cent. 

Fourth compartment .... density, 2.9; 12 per cent. 

Fifth compartment.density, 2.9; 3 per cent. 

Sixth compartment.density, 2.8 ; 2 per cent. 

For the particles of 0 ra .014 in diameter, the proper number of turns 
is three and a half, and for particles of 0 m .004, five turns. One of these 
contrivances will deliver about 759 quarts of gravel per hour. 

In conclusion, it may be said that although the different forms of 
apparatus described have not yet given results in all respect satisfac¬ 
tory, several mills have found it advantageous to use them. There is 
no doubt that great improvements may yet be made in this direction. 





























MINING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


97 


In concluding these observations upon apparatus for separating stamp 
stuff, where the particles are more than 0 .00025 in diameter, it may 
be mentioned that Messrs. Huet and Geyler are still engaged in 
constructing an apparatus for the purpose. It consists of a series of 
inclined fixed sieves connected with a piston, which will make from 
1.50 to 200 strokes per minute, so as to keep the stuff suspended as long 
as possible in its passage across the sieves. Some preliminary trials 
with the apparatus promise good results. 


CLASSIFICATION OF SANDY STUFF. 


In classifying gravelly or comparatively coarse materials in jigs, it is 
sought to obtain by means of the trommels particles of equal volume, 
but for the classification of sands it is the reverse ; for it is necessary to 
obtain a combination between the weight and the volume, or, in other 
words, to unite smaller grains or particles of great density with larger 
or coarser particles of less density, thus obtaining a mixture which is 
very favorable for enrichment by concentration on tables or buddies. 

In general, the apparatus for classifying or separating the sandy and 
fine stuff* consists of vessels or cisterns into which the mixtures are 
delivered in currents of water, so that the lighter portions flow off at 
the top, while the sand and heavy particles fall to the bottom and are 
drawn oft* through a small aperture. The sizing cisterns and separ¬ 
ating boxes with sloping sides, in use at Schemnitz, are of this character. 


Fig. 31. 



Conical Separators. 


The conical separators shown by Fig. 31, make one of the most com¬ 
plete and effective forms of apparatus, but they require a large quantity 
7 M 




































































































98 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 



of water. The construction may be readily understood from the draw¬ 
ing. It consists of two concentric fixed cones, so placed that the space 
Fig. 32. between them may be increased or dimin¬ 

ished at pleasure by means of an adjusting 
screw which raises or lowers the inner cone. 
The mixed stuff enters b} T the middle cone 
and falls through holes into the annular 
space between the cones, where it encoun¬ 
ters an ascending current of water. In the 
upward flow of this water the lighter stuff 
is removed and the heavier particles fall to 
the bottom and are discharged in a constant 
stream through a conical valve. A series of 
such separating cones placed one below 
another, so that the second may receive 
the overflow of the first, and so on in succes¬ 
sion, is one of the best forms of apparatus 
for the separation of slime from sand. 

Eittinger’s separating tubs with as¬ 
cending currents.— In this apparatus, 
shown in section by Fig. 32, tubs or com¬ 
partments increasing in size are placed one 
below another so as to form a continuous 
series, and they are supported upon an in¬ 
clined frame so as to give free access to the 
bottoms of the tubs. The sides of these tubs 
slope toward a central opening at the hot 
tom, thus forming hopper-shaped vessels, or 
inverted hollow pyramids. The opening at 
the bottom is closed by a valve or plug A, 
through which the heavy stuff which col¬ 
lects may be drawn oft'. The tubs are 
joined together by the edges, and the outer 
edges of the series are the highest, so that 
when filled with water the edges between 
one tub and the next are below the sur¬ 
face, and thus permit a continuous flow of 
water from one end of the series to the other. 
A long supply-water pipe extends over the 
• top of the tubs, and by means of branches 
B B delivers a current of water near the 
bottom of each tub. The stuff enters by a 
launder at 0, and the heaviest particles fall 
gradually toward the bottom of the vessel, 
and in their descent meet with an ascend- 

Rittinger’sSei aratingTubs with lug current from the pipe B. The lighter 
ascenilii g currents. 


























































































MINING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


99 


portions are thus carried upward and flow over into the next tub, and 
so on to the third, and finally are delivered at the outlet into the waste 
pipe at \\ . As the size of the tub increases the ascending currents from 
the pipes have less and less force and only the finest and poorest por¬ 
tions are carried away. 

This arrangement gives very satisfactory results. It will wash- and 
separate about a ton of sand each hour, and it requires from 120 to 150 
quarts of water per minute. The apparatus is usually constructed of 
wood, but the figure represents it as made of iron, the advantages of 
which for such apparatus have already been noted. 

SLIME SEPARATORS, SHAKING TABLES, AND CIRCULAR PUDDLES. 

Several forms of apparatus for concentrating fine stuff and the separ¬ 
ation of slime from sands by washing upon inclined surfaces were shown 
in the different sections of the Exposition, but none of the various con¬ 
trivances for this purpose which have originated and are in use in the 
United States were shown. The principal exhibits were a shaking table 
with an endless belt, or cloth, constructed by Messrs. Huet and Geyler, 
shaking or percussion tables with lateral motion, (the stossheerd of 
Rittinger,) and rotary tables, or circular buddies, constructed entirely 
of metal. 

Shaking table with endless cloth. —A machine of this descrip¬ 
tion was exhibited by Messrs. Huet and Geyler, in connection with their 

' • 

other apparatus for ore-dressing. It consists of a strong iron frame, with 
rollers at each end, over which an endless band of cloth as wide as the 
table is stretched. This cloth, which forms the surface of the inclined 
table upon which the stuff* is to be washed, is made to revolve by means 
of motion communicated to the upper roller by a pulley. The whole 
table with the frame is so suspended in an outer frame that a shaking 
motion or shock can be given to it by cams acting on each side of the 
frame. With the exception of this shaking or percussion, it is similar 
in construction to II run ton’s machine, used at Devon Great Consols, in 
Cornwall, and described in the supplement to Ure’s dictionary. 

The slope of the surface of the cloth, and its speed of rotation, may 
be changed at will, and the number of jerks and their strength can be 
varied by means of the adjusting screw provided for the purpose. 

Rittinger’s continuously working stossheerd. —This is one of 
the most interesting and important concentrating machines which has 
yet been invented. It was shown by models in the Austrian section, 
and was examined by one of the writers at the Kronprinz Concentration 
Works, near Freiberg, Saxony. A very full description of this stossheerd, 
with large drawings made to scale, has been published by Mr. Rittinger ; 
but as that information is inaccessible to the majority of* the persons 
interested in the mechanical concentration of ores in the United States, 
a brief description is desirable. 


IT) 


100 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


Pi-. 33. 



VMi 

U 

1 m 



Rittinger’s Continuously-working Stosslieerd—s' de view. 


Fig. 34. 



Rittiuger’s Continuously-working Stosslieerd—vertical view. 


A side view of this apparatus is given in Fig. 33, and a vertical view 
in Fig. 34. It consists of a wooden table or platform, about eight feet 
long and four wide, suspended at the four corners, and inclined forward 






















































































































































































































MINING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


101 


.so that water and fine stuff poured upon the upper part will flow evenly 
down to the front edge. A lateral throw and percussion is given to the 
whole table by means of cams c upon a shaft at the side, and the reacting 
wooden spring S upon the opposite side of the table. Two tables are usu¬ 
ally combined in one, and they are separated by a narrow strip of wood 
extending the whole length; similar strips are placed on each side of the 
table, and serve to keep the water and stuff from flowing off. The stuff 
to be washed is delivered upon the tables at the upper left-hand corner, 
at A,in Fig. 34. The distributors P P P furnish clear water. While the 
table is at rest, the tendency of the stuff is to flow down the slope in a 
direct line from A to A'. By means of the lateral percussion, however, 
the path of the heavier particles is changed, and they are gradually 
thrown from left to right, along the surface of the table, at right angles 
to the direction of the current of clear water. This current tends at the 
same time to sweep the particles downward, and it acts upon the light 
sterile matters more rapidly than upon the heavy ore. The result is, 
that the heavier and richer particles are gradually separated from the 
poor stuff and describe the path upon the table indicated by the dotted 
lines. By the time the particles have reached the foot of the table, the 
richest portions have been transferred to the corner of the table diag¬ 
onally opposite to that upon which the stuff' entered, and they flow* 
off into the compartment E. The u middlings” are dropped into the 
next compartment 1), and the poor falls into 0. 

In order that good results may be obtained with this apparatus, the 
following conditions must be observed : 

1 The surface of the table must be very smooth. 

2 The length must be about 2 in .50, and the width from l m .2o to 1 .50. 
The width of space over which the stuff is delivered must be from 0 m .20 
to 0 .30. 

3. The inclination of the table must be in direct ratio to the size of the 
stuff to be washed. For sand, it requires to be about six degrees, and 
for fine powders about three degrees. 

4. The amount of clear water to be admitted at the top of the table, 
and to be spread over a width of from 0 m .30 to 0 nl .35, will be nearly con¬ 
stant. For sand, about six quarts a minute is necessary ; and for dust, 
or fine stuff, from three to three and a half quarts. If the slope of the 
table is diminished, and the size of the stuff remains the same, the quan¬ 
tity of water should be increased, ft is necessary to distribute this 
supply of water quite near to the stuff to be washed, so as to facilitate 
the separation of the light and poor stuff from the rich. 

5. The number of shocks per minute should be, for sand, from 70 to 80; 
for dust, 90 to 100; for poor and fine slime and dust it is sometimes 
advantageous to carry the number of shocks or jerks as high as 120, and 
sometimes 140 per minute. 

0 . The tension of the spring is equal to 100 or 112 kilogrammes. The 
amount of movement necessary to produce the requisite vibrations is, 
for sand, 0 m .065; and for dust, O'".020 to 0 m .013. 


102 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


7 . The velocity of the current upon the table should be from 0 ,n .25 to 
O Mf) per second, according to the nature of the stuff. 

8 . The greatest regularity must be observed in the number of jerks 
or shocks; in the quantity of stuff* admitted upon the table, including 
water ; in the nature of the stuff' to be treated; in the slope of the table, 
which must be diminished as the stuff to be washed grows poorer and 
lighter. Careful attention to all these points is essential to success. 

The apparatus gives three products. The mixed or middlings can be 
passed over the table a second time. Stuff of which the particles are 
0 m .004 in diameter can be treated as successfully as the finest slime. It 
saves much labor. One man can attend two twin-tables. The power 
required for ten twin-tables is about one-quarter of one horse power. 

Rotating Ruddles.— Two forms of rotating buddies were shown in 
the French section by Messrs. Huet and Geyler, one being concave and 
the other convex, and both made entirely of iron and accurately finished. 
The construction of the concave buddle is shown by Fig. 35. The stuff 
to lie crushed is supplied at the circumference of the circular or annular 
table, and is discharged into different compartments at the center. 


Fig. 35. 



The foundation plate sustains the distributing pipe, the water pipe, 
the waste gutter, and the driving shaft. An endless screw upon this 
shaft gives motion to the concave table. Experience in using this buddle 
has shown that it is desirable to have a greater number of sprinkling 
pipes than are generally used in the Harz. It is said that the washing 
of the stuff is completed in one operation, while with the German con¬ 
struction it sometimes happens that the stuff must be passed twice over 
the machine to obtain an equal result. 

The convex buddle is also an annular table, but instead of sloping 
inward toward the center, it slopes from the center out ward, being the 
reverse of the concave buddle. The stuff is supplied on the inner margin 
and flows outward to the lower edge, and is delivered into a sucession 
of annular troughs. 

The construction is similar to that of the concave buddle. A cast-iron 
frame supports the table, the driving shaft, the water pipes, and all the 
fixtures. The tangent screw and the driving shaft work in a hollow case 
of cast iron. 




























































































MINING-MECHANICAL PREPARATION OF ORES. 


These buddies are intended to wash only the fine slimes, and should 
be fed from the conical separators or trunking’ apparatus. Satisfactory 
results depend upon regularity in the motion and the even and proper 
supply of stuff and of clear water. It is well to work these buddies in 
pairs and even to use three, the second taking the middlings from the 
first, and the third the middlings from the second. It is claimed for this 
apparatus that the duty is equal to that of Rittinger’s continual working 
stosslieerd. The quantity of water required varies from 00 to 70 quarts, 
or more, for the concave buddies, and from 00 to 120 quarts a minute 
for the convex buddies. They require about one-fourth of a horse-power 
to run them. One man can attend to six machines. For feeding them 
with regularity, Messrs. Huetand Geyler use a hopper with a distributing 
helix, so arranged as to give a regular supply of the material to be 
washed, from the commencement to the end of the operation. 

CHAIN ELEVATORS. 

In the apparatus for ore-dressing shown by the firm of Messrs. Huct 
and Geyler, much use is made of a very ingeniously constructed chain 
elevator, which drags, scrapes, and hoists the materials from one piece 
of apparatus to another, thus saving a great amount of hand labor, it 
consists of a succession of buckets, made of cast iron, united so as to 
form a chain, as shown in Figs. 36 and 37. The wheels D, which sup- 


Fig. 3f>. 


Fig- 37. 


Chain Elevator—side view. Chain Elevator—front view, 

port and give motion to this elevator, are cast with arms K Iv, which 
catch regularly upon the joints II II, between the buckets G. 

































































101 


PARIS UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION. 


CONCLUSION. 


In concluding’ this resume of tlie machines and apparatus for ore- 
dressing shown at the Exposition of 1807, reference should be made to 
the great advances made in the United States during the past ten years. 
The discovery of the wonderful silver-bearing veins of Washoe, and the 
rapid increase of both silver and gold mining, gave an impetus to the 
manufacture of machinery for the rapid crushing, stamping, sorting, 
grinding, and concentration of ores of all kinds which has never been 
equaled. The nature and extent of the improvements made in stamp¬ 
ing and grinding machinery upon the Pacific coast is as yet hardly known 
in Europe, or even in the Atlantic States. 

At Lake Superior, Ball’s stamps have been used with great success. 
The duty of these stamps has been increased so that they now crush 
nearly 100 tons of rock each per day. Blake’s rock-breaker is in almost 
universal use in the United States and Europe and Australia, and is 
one of the most useful and labor-saving machines which has been added 
to the list of machines for the mechanical preparation of ores. 

Of the apparatus which has been described, it is probable that the 
sorting or sizing boxes, the improved stosslieerd of Rittinger, and per¬ 
haps the automatic jigs of Huet and Geyler, can be adopted with advan¬ 
tage by most of the concentrating works in the United States. 


PAKIS EXPOSITION 1867. MINING —TOOLS FOR BORING SHAFTS. 





PLATE 1/ 


























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Troxiillet's 




drilling machine 


haupt’s 


drill 




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Poring Maclone of D oring — Prussia. 


Side. View~ 


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5 . 


Fig. 6. 


Front View. 


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S oirumelier ' s Patent P o r ex . 

(Used at “Moral Cems”) 



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^ A?:lc EXPOSITION ie IINING.—DRILLING a C 


CUTTING MACHINES 


I 




Fig. 5. 

Jones and. i evicts Coal Cutting and ISrvmg Machine. 


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